Frontline gardaí to get long-awaited bodycams

Rollout of facial recognition technology will be delayed

Bodycams for frontline gardaí have been described as 'crucial' for safety.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris is to immediately begin buying long-awaited bodycams for frontline gardaí, which have been described as "crucial" for the safety of the force.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee will on Tuesday morning tell Cabinet that Mr Harris is to start the tendering process for the bodycams straight away.

However, the rollout of controversial facial recognition technology (FRT) will be delayed after Ms McEntee was forced to back down in an internal Coalition row between the Green Party and Fine Gael on the issue, which has rumbled on in recent months.

Ms McEntee and former justice minister Simon Harris had wanted to introduce the technology as soon as possible and had been pressing to simply add it as an amendment to other legislation. 

However, Eamon Ryan's party insisted that providing gardaí with the power to use FRT should be fully considered through standalone legislation.

Separate bill

Ms McEntee will on Tuesday seek approval to draft a separate FRT bill.

This standalone bill, the Garda Síochána (Digital Management and Facial Recognition Technology) Bill 2023, would allow gardaí to retrospectively search images using FRT.

Safeguards are also set to be placed in the bill, including a ban on mass surveillance and on profiling, and gardaí will be banned from using live FRT.

Any evidence identified using FRT would be subject to a final decision by a specially trained garda with no automatic decision-making set to be in place.

The rollout of body cams will be welcomed by gardaí who have long called for their introduction, with more than 2,000 gardaí assaulted on duty in the last seven years, 186 of them this year.