Policing

The roll-out of live facial recognition technology across London has come under sharp criticism from human rights and civil liberties groups. The Metropolitan Police has announced it will begin the operational use of the controversial technology in order to tackle serious crime in specific locations

An Garda Síochána is "under strain" in areas including accommodation, training capacity, bringing in skilled resources, and introducing new ICT systems, the Garda Commissioner has said. Writing in the foreword to the force's annual report for 2018, Commissioner Drew Harris said the str

Policing Authority member Bob Collins has been named as the watchdog's new chairperson. Mr Collins will succeed outgoing chairperson Josephine Feehily, the inaugural officeholder who oversaw the establishment of the Policing Authority in 2016.

Just over one in ten of sexual offences reported to gardaí last year led to a suspect being charged, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The agency has published recorded crime detection figures for the first time in three years, having suspended them over conce

The Commissioner of An Garda Síochána has lost an appeal against an order quashing the decision to request the resignation of a Garda accused of sexual assault. Finding that the Commissioner was deficient in responding to the assertion that the Garda had pleaded guilty only on the basis of recei

The Policing Authority's chairperson, Josephine Feehily, will step down at the end of her term next month, according to reports. She is the inaugural chairperson of the Authority, having overseen its establishment at the start of 2016 as part of a programme of reform under former justice minister Fr

The PSNI has been granted permission to appeal a landmark ruling on legacy investigations to the UK Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled in March that the Chief Constable of the PSNI had not demonstrated the independence of the PSNI's Legacy Investigation Branch, which is necessary fo

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has won an appeal against a £7,500 damages award over delays in progressing the inquest of the death of Pearse Jordan. The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, found that the trial judge had failed to differentiate between the period of delay for

A new cross-border crime agency is not "practicably possible" due to the collapse of devolution in Northern Ireland, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said. The idea of a new agency has been repeatedly raised in discussions about the abduction and torture of businessman Kevin Lunney by a cross-b

The Metropolitan Police unlawfully banned London protests by environmental movement Extinction Rebellion last month, the High Court in London has ruled. Judges said the "Extinction Rebellion Autumn Uprising" did not qualify as a "public assembly" within the meaning of the Public Order Act 1986 becau

Former justice minister Dermot Ahern has called for the consideration of a new north-south body focused on policing in order to crack down on cross-border crime. Mr Ahern, who held the justice brief in the Fianna Fáil-led government from 2008 to 2011, said a new institution could complement t

The Policing Authority has today announced that it has commissioned a review of the An Garda Síochána adult caution scheme. The purpose of the review is to understand whether issues which arose in the Youth Diversion Programme exist, or have the potential to exist, in a broadly similar

The criminal justice system in England and Wales is "now dysfunctional and defective, broken and on-the-floor", policing watchdog chief Sir Thomas Winsor has warned. Sir Thomas, Her Majesty's chief inspector of constabulary, said the "inexcusably low" level of resourcing and investment in prevention

Gardaí are planning a number of raids on solicitors' offices as part of a crackdown on insurance fraud, according to reports. According to The Irish Times, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) is planning to lead a number of "days of action", consisting of raids on the homes of su

Around 35,000 children have been stopped and searched by PSNI officers in the past nine years with little benefit for community safety, a major stop and search policing conference will hear today. The new PSNI chief constable, Simon Byrne, is among those attending the conference at Queen's Universit