Thousands of unlawful Garda surveillance dossiers created about children including infants

Garda Inspectorate describes Garda intelligence records as “unusual” and tells An Garda Síochána to audit ALL files of children under age 12 created since 2015

Updated on 7 December. Corrected to note 1,100 records (not 110) of children aged between 8-11.

6 December 2024 — An Garda Síochána created thousands of unlawful intelligence files on children under the age of 12 – some for infants as young as 42 days old – between 1999 and 2023.

This was revealed in a Garda Inspectorate report published this week, ten years after concerns about Traveller children – some as young as 16 days old – being placed on the PULSE system were first raised in the Dáil and media in 2014.

The Garda Inspectorate reports that Gardai created intelligence files on children from 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2023 including:

587 intelligence records of children under the age of 3
517 intelligence records of children between the age of 4 and 7
1,100 intelligence records of children aged between 8 and 11

These records included:

Recording a 10-month-old infant as “involved in crime"
“Inappropriately” recording a mother and her one-year-old infant sitting in a car “waiting for their laundry”
“Inappropriately” recording a mother, father and a two-year-old child “who were seen walking” in another intelligence file.

The Garda Inspectorate also published figures for 1999-2015, from a Garda internal review:

7,408 intelligence records linked to children under 12 were created between 1999 and 2015.¹
3,668 of which were non-compliant with data protection legislation.
2,244² had incorrect dates of birth. An unknown number of this smaller set of records that were marked as children were in fact adults.

While thousands of these unlawful records have been removed, the Garda Inspectorate on has told An Garda Síochána to audit all of the intelligence records it has created for children under 12, since 2015. An Garda Síochána must identify any intelligence records created in breach of its policy, and delete all intelligence records not associated with very serious offences or where there are no other compelling reasons for retaining those records.

Olga Cronin, ICCL Enforce Senior Policy Officer, said:

“The findings of the Garda Inspectorate report are deeply troubling. It’s still very unclear why some children in Irish society, including infants, have been recorded on a police system. Who are these children? They, and their parents, have a right to know. Ultimately, this is yet another unfortunate example of An Garda Síochána demonstrating a poor grasp of data protection legislation and does not augur well for Garda use of powerful technologies such as facial recognition technology.

“What’s particularly astonishing is that, ten years after red flags were first raised about this, the Garda Inspectorate has called on An Garda Síochána to audit all its intelligence records for children under 12 created since 2015. This suggests that the full scale of this issue is still unknown.

“In less than two weeks, the Inspectorate’s function and powers will be moved to a new body, the Policing and Community Safety Authority. It is essential that these recommendations, and any other oversight work that is ongoing within the Inspectorate, are not lost as part of the transition.”

The Garda Inspectorate report also highlighted significant data accuracy issues with some records marking infants as drivers of vehicles. It noted: “In some cases, dates of birth post-dated the date that the intelligence record was created. In essence, records exist with a minus date of birth.”

Intelligence records are usually created for people linked to criminal or suspicious behaviour. Since 2006, the age of criminal responsibility in Ireland has been 12. The Garda Inspectorate has described the creation of intelligence records by An Garda Síochána for children under the age of criminal responsibility as “unusual”.

2014 Garda Analysis

In 2014, when concerns were initially raised, the Inspectorate asked An Garda Síochána for information about intelligence records on children. The guards said they weren't in a position to share information, however, the Inspectorate this week said they were "disappointed" to have since learned that An Garda Síochána failed to share two Garda analysis reports on the matter at that time – analysis which showed "unnecessary and inappropriate records were created" including that of a 42-day-old infant.

The Inspectorate report also showed that in 2015 an instruction went out to Gardaí saying they must not create PULSE intelligence records for children under 12 unless it was connected to very serious offences or there were compelling reasons to do so. This had an immediate effect with the number of intelligence records falling from 1,836 in 2014 to 256 in 2015. But the numbers rose consecutively over the next five years, back up to 400 in 2020. It was only after a technical change to the PULSE system in 2020 forced Gardaí to complete an assessment criteria form that the numbers decreased, dropping from 118 in 2021 to 7 in 2023.

In 2014, when the alarm was first raised about this practice, the Garda Inspectorate asked An Garda Síochána to confirm the number of intelligence records created for children under the age of 12. It also asked for information to confirm the ethnicity of children under the age of 12, due to concerns that Traveller children, in particular, were affected.

But An Garda Síochána told the Garda Inspectorate it couldn’t provide that material as inquiries were ongoing, a large amount of work remained, and they weren’t yet in a position to give the Garda Inspectorate definitive figures.

In turn, the Garda Inspectorate recommended in its 2014 Crime Investigation report that An Garda Síochána carry out an “urgent review” of the recording of children’s details as an intelligence record on PULSE.

However, in Tuesday’s report, which reviewed the implementation of its 2014 recommendations, the Garda Inspectorate noted that, at the time of the publication of their 2014 report, An Garda Síochána had, in fact, carried out an internal assessment, supported by two pieces of analysis by the Garda Síochána Analysis Service (GSAS).

Those analyses showed:

58 records of children under the age of one had been created between January 2013 and June 2014;

That among those 58 records, in the words of the Garda Inspectorate, “unnecessary and inappropriate records were created” including a record of a 42-day-old infant;

That, between 2009 and 2014, 1,353 intelligence records for children aged under seven were created;

And 30%, or 405, of those 1,353 records were of children under the age of one.

In Tuesday’s report, the Garda Inspectorate noted: “It is disappointing that this information and specifically the data contained in the two GSAS reports was not provided to the Inspectorate in 2014, prior to the publication of the Crime Investigation report.” It also noted that while the nationality of children included in the database is sometimes recorded, ethnicity – which is particularly important in identifying whether Traveller children are being disproportionately targeted – is still not.

In light of the revelations in 2014, an instruction was sent out to all chief superintendents and superintendents in 2015, stating that, with immediate effect, members must not create PULSE identities for children under 12 through the PULSE intelligence system unless it was connected to very serious offences or there were compelling reasons to do so.

But, in Tuesday’s report, the Garda Inspectorate found that this 2015 instruction, while it had some effect, did not have a lasting impact.

It found that the number of child intelligence records fell from a peak of 1,836 in 2014 to 256 in 2015 but that the number rose each year for the next five consecutive years – up to 312 in 2016, 314 in 2017, 336 in 2018, 389 in 2019 and 400 in 2020.

From 2020 the number fell – dropping to 118 in 2021, 72 in 2022 and 7 in 2023.

The Garda Inspectorate determined this decrease from 2020 was due to friction being created in the system. In 2020, a technical change was applied to the PULSE system - which included an automatic mid-screen alert message advising members that the creation of intelligence records for children under 12 is limited to certain categories and requires the completion of an assessment criteria form. Gardaí also have to seek a recommendation from a Criminal Intelligence Officer (CIO) and an authorisation from a superintendent.

Questions Raised

ICCL is calling on An Garda Síochána to fully implement the Inspectorate’s recommendations to protect children from being wrongfully included in PULSE intelligence records, noting that it has an obligation under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 to eliminate discrimination and protect the rights of children. It is also calling for transparency in relation to the following:

Why did An Garda Síochána not share their 2014 analysis of this issue, which showed “unnecessary and inappropriate records were created”, including that of a 42-day-old infant, with the Garda Inspectorate before the Inspectorate published its report in October 2014?
Why did it take six years for any meaningful change? Rather than decreasing, the number of records created about children under the age of 12 by An Garda Síochána increased each year between 2015 and 2020, after the issue was first highlighted.
How many children under the age of 12 have An Garda Síochána wrongfully created intelligence records for?
Why is a training course for Gardaí, called ‘Restricted Intelligence Creation on Persons Under 12’ and introduced in 2021, focused on how to create an intelligence record instead of the circumstances in which it is appropriate and necessary to do so?
Have the affected children and their parents been informed? How do parents find out whether their children are in the intelligence database?
What redress has been offered to the affected children?
Ten years after concerns about the targeting of Traveller children were raised, why is there still no ethnicity data available on affected children? Have any of these children been harmed, or been subjected to adverse legal consequences, because of these dossiers?
What technical and organisational measures does An Garda Síochána have in place to ensure and demonstrate that data protection principles are being implemented in an effective manner and that the rights of data subjects, who in this particular case are children, are protected?
To what extent has the Human Rights Screening Tool been used to conduct a human rights and equality impact assessment when creating intelligence records for children under 12?
Under Article 84 of the Data Protection Act 2018, An Garda Síochána should have carried out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) of processing of personal data. This should have included an assessment of the potential risks to the rights and freedoms of the respective people involved and a description of any safeguards, security measures or mechanisms used by An Garda Síochána to mitigate against any risk and to ensure the protection of the personal data of those involved. Did An Garda Síochána carry out a DPIA?
Also under Article 84 of the Data Protection Act 2018, after having conducted a DPIA and seeing that the processing of data, despite the implementation of safeguards, security measures and mechanisms, could still result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, An Garda Síochána would have had to consult with the Data Protection Commission (DPC). Did An Garda Síochána consult with the DPC?

ENDS

For media queries: Ruth McCourt ruth.mccourt@iccl.ie / 087 415 7162

Notes to Editors about intelligence records about children
Intelligence records can be created for people who are not involved in crime, such as in child welfare cases. However, the Garda Inspectorate found that a large number of intelligence records had no intelligence type recorded, and it raised specific concerns about the creation of intelligence records for child welfare reasons. It said there "appears to be some confusion about the use of child welfare as an intelligence type" and told An Garda Síochána to review the use of child welfare as an intelligence type and issue guidance on the creation of intelligence records in child welfare cases.

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