Sir, – Gary Doyle suggested that the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) review the coverage of the 2023 Dublin riots regarding our objection to the fast-tracked Taser pilot for frontline gardaí in Dublin city centre and Waterford (Letters, December 19th).
It is unclear to us in ICCL whether Tasers will be used by gardaí in public order incidents such as the Dublin riots, but international research demonstrates that the benefits of their use in such situations are limited and in fact they may escalate violence.
The lack of transparency around Garda use of force and weapons such as Tasers is a matter of concern to ICCL and leads to public confusion about their use.
An Garda Síochána has a use of force policy and a conductive energy device (Taser) policy which govern the use of Tasers.
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Unfortunately, these are not published and so we and the public must operate on the basis of statements made to media and limited information published by An Garda Síochána.
The confusion about when and how Tasers will be used may also be a result of the lack of public introduction prior to the Tasers pilot.
A public consultation could have communicated the precise circumstances under which Tasers would be used and captured the public’s views on the proposal.
A consultation could in turn have subsequently informed the design of the pilot, which should include an assessment of any negative impacts of the introduction of Tasers and the effectiveness of Tasers for achieving their stated aims (again this is somewhat unclear, but An Garda Síochána and the Garda Representative Association are linking the pilot to garda safety and attacks on gardaí.
Gardaí do a very important job and often put themselves in dangerous situations to protect us.
ICCL recognises this and individual members’ right to be protected as much as possible.
But we must also consider the nature of Irish policing and the direction of travel for policing in Ireland.
With pilots on body-worn cameras and Tasers under way, draft legislation on biometric categorisation and facial recognition technology being debated in the Oireachtas, and plans to expand garda powers scheduled for debate next year, policing in Ireland is changing very quickly.
There needs to be transparency and public debate of these changes if they are to align with human rights obligations which ultimately protect all of us. – Yours, etc.
EMILY WILLIAMS,
Policing and Justice Policy Officer,
Irish Council for Civil Liberties ,
Dublin 2.
