1 June 2022
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said that the power to compel a password violates people’s rights and must be removed from a Bill currently passing through the Oireachtas. Given An Garda Síochána’s poor record on data protection, as well as the intimate data contained on a person’s phone, we recommend that gardaí would have to secure a separate warrant to compel a password.
ICCL’s Head of Legal and Policy, Doireann Ansbro, explained:
“We can’t have a situation where a person accused of a minor offence can be compelled to share huge swathes of information about their personal life with law enforcement. This possibility is compounded when we remember previous incidents where gardaí have leaked private, intimate material and it has gone viral.”
The Oireachtas Justice Committee is this morning expected to release a report compiling the recommendations it is making following its pre legislative scrutiny on two new garda bills. ICCL made submissions on both bills, which we are publishing in advance of the report.
There are a number of highly worrying suggestions in these Bills, particularly the Police Powers Bill. ICCL recommends that detention for questioning should never be extended beyond 24 hours without judicial warrant as suggested. We also recommend that any restrictions on the right to a lawyer, even when a person is being “disruptive”, should be removed.
Further, we recommend that gardaí should record age, gender and ethnicity when they stop and search people. It’s important that all protected characteristics are recorded so that we can understand if any communities are experiencing stop-and-search to a greater extent than others. At the moment Ireland does not gather information like this so there is no way of discovering whether certain communities are experiencing discriminatory policing.
ICCL also recommends that gardaí should never act as prosecutors. Government must adequately resource the DPP so that this highly unusual practice can be discontinued immediately.
ENDS/
Find ICCL’s submission on the Police Powers Bill: https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ICCL-Submission-Police-Powers-Bill.pdf
Find ICCL’s submission on the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill: https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ICCL-Submission-Policing-Security-and-Community-Safety-Bill.pdf
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) is Ireland’s oldest independent human rights campaigning organisation. We monitor, educate and campaign to secure human rights for everyone in Ireland.
For comment: Doireann Ansbro
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie