Policing

A standalone bill allowing for the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) by An Garda Síochána will be brought forward later in the year, the government has announced. The Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022, which is currently before the Dáil and will

Lawyers for a 27-year-old dental nurse arrested at her workplace in Derry yesterday have said they will bring proceedings against the PSNI for a "distasteful and deplorable abuse of powers". In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the PSNI said the woman was arrested on suspicion of being concern

Legislation allowing for the general and indiscriminate retention of communications traffic and location data on national security grounds, subject to judicial approval, is to come into force. Having returned from maternity leave, justice minister Helen McEntee yesterday signed a commencement order

An Garda Síochána has been designated as the competent authority in Ireland for issuing legal orders requiring internet service providers to remove online terrorist content. Under the EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation, each EU member state is obliged to designate a competent autho

Mountjoy Prison governor Eddie Mullins has been appointed as chair of the Dublin North Inner City local community safety partnership (LCSP). Under the Department of Justice’s community safety policy, LCSPs will replace and build upon the existing joint policing committees. There are currently

Sir Iain Livingstone, Police Scotland's chief constable, has admitted that the single force is institutionally racist and discriminatory. The revelation follows a review that revealed instances of racism, sexism, and homophobia by active officers. Reports of staff facing repercussions for flagging t

Amnesty International has raised concerns about the disproportionate use of stop and search by the PSNI on people from minoritised ethnic communities and on children. In total, 23,650 people were stopped and searched in Northern Ireland by police in the year to the end of March 2023, according to ne

Retired Northern Ireland civil servant Anthony Harbinson has been appointed to the Policing Authority. Mr Harbinson retired last year as permanent secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has said there was "collusive behaviour" in the original police investigation into the 1974 abduction and murder of Omagh councillor Patrick 'Patsy' Kelly. In a report published yesterday, Marie Anderson said Mr Kelly's family was "failed by police" as the r

Two PSNI officers are to be prosecuted for a range of offences in connection with "numerous incidents" including the alleged sharing of imagery taken at the scenes of sudden deaths. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said yesterday that it had taken the decision to prosecute following the consider

The Supreme Court has held that the seizure of computer devices from an accused murderer’s home was unlawful in circumstances where gardaí failed to seek authority from the District Court when applying for a search warrant. While the gardaí always intended to search the digital c

A review of PSNI strip-searches of children and young people in custody will be carried out after concerns were raised by the Children's Law Centre (CLC). The Northern Ireland Policing Board said its human rights adviser will "review the compliance with human rights in how the PSNI addresses childre

Security forces across the world are increasingly misusing rubber and plastic bullets and other law enforcement weapons to violently suppress peaceful protests, causing horrific injuries and deaths, human rights campaigners have said. In a jointly-produced 48-page report titled My Eye Exploded, Amne

Northern Ireland’s High Court has allowed a judicial review application brought by a serving police constable seeking to prevent a disciplinary hearing into allegations of gross misconduct. The court found that judicial review here was appropriate, despite the fact that there were alternative

The Irish government has welcomed the launch of an updated information sharing system across the EU to help fight terrorism and serious crime.