THE IRISH COUNCIL for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has expressed concern that the online publishing of photos of people suspected of rioting may breach data protection.

Gardaí yesterday uploaded 99 images of people who they deem as of interest to their investigation into the widespread Dublin riots last year.

The photos, which are available on garda.ie, were taken from CCTV footage from the streets and businesses of Dublin City Centre on 23 November.

Gardaí asked the public to view the photos and contact gardaí if they have information that could help. This can be done anonymously, if desired, through the online tool.

Five people pictured have already been identified and their photos have been taken down.

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 that there are “legitimate” reasons for doing this, she says it must be done in copliance 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.

“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.

The 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 that they conducted their own data protection assessment before publishing the images.