Jon Boutcher told the NI Policing Board that he has a “very clear plan” in place to begin publishing mugshots next year “as a deterrence”, The Irish News reports.

The move comes after the PSNI published photos in the summer of individuals suspected of taking part in anti-immigration riots.

Mr Boutcher said the force “changed our internal processes around publication of photographs of people convicted to show those people responsible for that disorder publicly through convicted photographs”.

However, Northern Ireland’s “justice process is slower than in England and Wales” and so it had not yet been possible to implement that policy, he added.