LAST UPDATE | 20 Nov

EIGHTEEN PEOPLE SUSPECTED of being involved in the Dublin riots last year have been identified from the images of 99 individuals posted online by An Garda Síochána.

Gardaí released the images yesterday, ahead of the first anniversary of the riots on 23 November. The images were captured via CCTV footage.

The photos of the 18 people who have since been identified have been removed from AGS’s website.

In a statement released this evening, a Garda spokesperson said: “The purpose of the publication was to identify these 99 ‘persons of interest’ to either rule each individual ‘in or out’ and progress the criminal investigative process…

“An Garda Síochána is not confirming at this time the role of any of these individuals in the events of 23 November 2023 and it should not be presumed that identification means criminal involvement in these events.”

Gardaí have asked members of the public to identify anyone they recognise in the images, saying they can do so anonymously if preferred. If anyone recognises themselves in the images, they have been asked to contact gardaí directly.

The investigation team at Store Street Garda Station can be contacted by calling 01 666 8000 or emailing store.street.public@garda.ie. Any member of the public can also provide confidential information by calling 1800 666 111.

This evening’s statement noted that AGS “continues to receive a very significant public response to this appeal for information”.

ICCL concerns

Earlier, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) expressed concern that the online publishing of photos of people suspected of rioting may breach data protection.

The practice of publishing images of crime suspects that gardaí have not yet been able to identify themselves is not new. For example, this happens regularly on RTÉ’s Crime Call – albeit on a smaller scale.

While Olga Cronin of the ICCL acknowledges there are “legitimate” reasons for doing this, she says it must be done in compliance with data protection law.

“They also need to consider the principles of necessity and proportionality,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“It’s our position that this move by the gardaí is different to, let’s say, Crime Call.

It’s a move, in their own words, that’s unprecedented, and it comes with significant risk.

The interest in the investigation, the scale of the photo sharing, and the online availability of the images are the council’s main concerns, she noted. 

“This relates to a night of huge public disorder, criminal damage, and violence that naturally attracted national and international attention … so it’s probably fair to say that this would attract greater interest,” Cronin added.

The Garda website crashed yesterday not long after the photos went live, indicating significant traffic.

“On top of that,” Cronin said, “this is being done online, which means these images can be shared more widely, more quickly, and with very little difficulty they can be downloaded, screenshotted, shared and stored”.

She also said the tool is “almost outsourcing of police work” that could result in “unintended consequences”.

Gardaí have said they conducted their own data protection assessment before publishing the images.

Contains reporting by Órla Ryan