Drew Harris: Body-worn cameras open to abuse by rogue gardaí
Drew Harris said the opportunity to record footage from the cameras is 'exceptionally limited' but possible. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has admitted that a body-worn camera system, which is currently being piloted in Garda divisions in Dublin and Limerick, is open to potential abuse by rogue gardaí.
Mr Harris also warned Garda members that they will face dismissal from the force, and potential criminal prosecution, if they are found to have shared or leaked footage of incidents captured on Garda body-worn cameras.
In a warning to gardaí, Comm Harris said: “An investigating member obviously has to review the footage in terms of [preparing] a file, so if somebody really wants to act outside our rules and instructions and indeed our discipline code, then on their head be it.”
Mr Harris said the body-worn camera system is “secure” and cannot be tampered with or altered, however he admitted that Garda members would have opportunity to record the footage from a third-party screen, such as a mobile phone, and share it with others.
He said the system had built-in safeguards to try to prevent a garda or civilian from directly recording footage from the body-worn camera, but he conceded that while the opportunity for someone “to take a recording [of the footage] is exceptionally limited”, it is possible.
“They would, in effect, have to be recording it from a screen during a playback session, and that in effect then would be regarded very seriously, a breach of privacy, and in certain circumstances, it would have to be regarded as a complete breach of trust, and, in effect, gross misconduct,” Mr Harris told reporters at the launch of the body-worn camera system in the Limerick Garda Division on Thursday.
He further warned that such a breach “would be dealt with accordingly, and there may well also then be breaches of criminal law as well; we would regard that as a very serious matter”.
The Garda chief said, in his opinion, any garda found to have shared body-worn camera footage externally would be guilty of a “complete breach of trust”.
While the system has yet to be rolled out nationwide, it is currently being piloted to the tune of €3m in Limerick, Dublin, and soon to be in Waterford, and there have been no incidents of any garda sharing or leaking body-worn camera footage, Mr Harris said.
He said cameras worn by members attached to Store Street Garda Station were very effective in policing and managing “serious disorder” in Coolock, where more than 30 people were arrested following recent rioting.
Audio recordings built in to Garda body-worn cameras are as important as video footage as they can also provide gardaí with key evidence “as to what’s been said, and the intent of individuals”, the Garda chief said.
Mr Harris revealed that gardaí had secured “48 pieces of evidential footage” from a single deployment of members to the Coolock riots.
This footage is to be submitted “as part of witness evidence, CCTV evidence” to identify those “who may have committed offences and will subsequently be reported to the DPP”.
Mr Harris said gardaí have reported to headquarters that the cameras are also helping members “diffuse situations” as well as providing “very important evidence, be it during arrests in terms of drink-driving, searches, domestic abuse incidents, and incidents of sexual assaults where you are recording the first complaint of the victim”.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence from body-worn camera footage are either awaiting DPP approval or have been used in the courts.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who also attended the body-worn camera launch in Limerick City, said:
She said gardaí using the cameras in Dublin have reported they “feel more protected” and that the cameras have “de-escalated potentially-dangerous situations”.
The minister revealed that in the month and half since they were rolled out in Dublin, “body-worn camera evidence has been used in court cases where we have had 1,200 pieces and, in particular, 300 that have been marked as evidence”.
Ms McEntee said “as a matter of urgency” she was also intent on publishing legislation, after the Dáil summer recess, that would allow gardaí more powers in using “facial-recognition technology”, which may include linking “retrospective evidence from body-worn cameras, to potentially identify suspects”.
This would “free up Garda resources” by doing away with the current system-trawl through thousands of hours of footage on body-worn cameras in order to identify suspects.
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