The move by An Garda Síochána to post pictures on its website of “persons of interests” in relation to last November’s Dublin riots has yielded results. As of Wednesday, pictures of 29 individuals had been removed from the gallery of 99 people. As the gardaí have pointed out, it should not be presumed that identification implies criminal involvement in the riots.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has criticised the posting of the images which it characterises as the “significant outsourcing of police work”. The suggestion that the decision to post the pictures is in some way a retrograde step is at odds with the long-established practice of seeking the help of the public in identifying people of interest. What is different this time is the scale of the appeal and the use of digital media.
The ICCL also warms of a number of potential unintended consequences including the possibility that a suspect publicly identified via this exercise may have their right to a free trial jeopardised. This is presumably because of the risk of members of any prospective jury being prejudiced by having seen the photographs. Again, this is nothing new, albeit on a bigger scale and on a different type of platform than hitherto.
The third point made by the ICCL is that an individual whose photograph has been posted by the Garda in the context of the riot might be the victim of vigilantism. They are correct when they say that, whether a person is a suspect or not, the gardaí should not put them in danger.
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The ICCL is on much stronger ground here as digital media is a breeding ground for this sort of behaviour and next to impossible to police. It is far from inconceivable that someone whose picture was posted by the gardaí this week could be put as risk.
The success of this week’s exercise in terms of identifying individuals identified as persons of interest makes it likely that the Garda will seek to repeat it in other contexts.
However, they would be well advised to heed the warning of the ICCL and ensure that the risks of collateral damage are mitigated.