Civil liberties group wants to end garda use of 'barbaric' spit guards

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has made a submission to Commissioner Drew Harris (pictured) calling on him to end use of the tool.

As a high-level garda review of ‘spit guards’ commences, frontline members have urged they be retained, while civil rights groups have called on the “barbaric” tool to be discarded.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has flagged that there would be a review in September of the ‘spit hoods’, which were introduced as a measure to protect gardaí from contracting Covid-19 from suspects threatening to cough or spit at them.