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THE POLICE POWERS Bill must be amended to remove powers that would allow Gardai to compel a password to someone’s electronic device, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said in a statement today.
The bill is passing through the Oireachtas currently and the non-profit recommends that gardaí would instead have to secure a separate warrant to compel a password from someone due to “An Garda Síochána’s poor record on data protection”.
A person who refuses to surrender a password for a mobile phone or other device to gardaí could face up to 12 months in prison and a fine of up to €5,000.
ICCL’s head of legal and policy, Doireann Ansbro, explained:
“We can’t have a situation where a person accused of a minor offence can be compelled to share huge swathes of information about their personal life with law enforcement. This possibility is compounded when we remember previous incidents where gardaí have leaked private, intimate material and it has gone viral.”
In 2017 then-Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys publicly apologised to the family of the late Dara Quigley, who died after nude images of her were leaked by a member of the gardaí.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris wrote a letter to Dara Quigley’s mother, Aileen Malone apologising for the “unacceptable breach of trust” by a member of the police force.
A poll by The Journal found that over 66% of people don’t want gardaí to have the power to compel a password from someone.
A statement by the Department of Justice welcomed the bill.
“A Garda will only have the power to require someone to provide a password in relation to devices found when carrying out a warrant to search a place for evidence of an offence. A search warrant can only be obtained where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that there is evidence of an offence at the place,” a spokesperson said.
“The Department has consulted extensively in the formulation of the bill, including with human rights bodies, policing oversight bodies, as well as An Garda Síochána and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.”
The bill will grant statutory basis to several practices that are currently commonly employed by an Garda Síochána, such as the right to a lawyer and special measures for children and persons with impaired capacity ( intellectual disabilities, mental illness, physical disabilities or intoxication).
The bill will also allow for suspects in human trafficking offences, who are currently subject to a maximum of 24 hours detention, to be detained for up to a week.
The ICCL has also urged that detention for questioning should never be extended beyond 24 hours without judicial warrant.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has also opposed elements of the bill and recommends that the bill should require gardaí to record the ethnic origin of a person during a stop and search.
Currently, the bill will require gardaí to make a written record of a stop and search but not log a person’s ethnicity.
“Without equality data, including special categories on racial and ethnic origin, it is difficult to measure how the implementation of Garda powers impacts people in different sectors of society,” the commission said.
The ICCL also said in its statement that gardaí should never have the power to act as prosecutors in court and that the government should “properly resource” the Director of Public Prosecutions to prevent this.
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I normally don’t go along with the civil liberties crowd but I think that a warrant is definitely required if they want your password.
@Pat Casey: If you are not a criminal then you have nothing to hide by showing a Garda your phone.
The public good trump’s my privacy.
@Roger Bond: The late Dara Quigley was not a criminal.
@Roger Bond: Not a criminal, nothing to hide, just don’t want anyone going through my personal stuff without good reason, but you work away.
@Roger Bond: Thats far too simplistic. They should not have automatic access to anyone’s phone without a warrant.
@Roger Bond: ‘If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ – Goebbels. You cannot trust these with this power as some Gardai will abuse their power.
@Roger Bond: it should never be down to any individual Garda, backed by law, what is ‘ for the public good’. That is a judicial role not law enforcement.
@Roger Bond: If you are innocent but are having a secret affair- you might admit to a crime to save your marriage?
Definitely court order only. The force in general have not shown enough professionalism to be granted such invasive powers on a whim.
Nobody has good faith in the gardai.
@Smithweiser: eighty something percent approval rating at the last poll.
@Paul Clancy: is this the survey that the gardai carried out themselves. All unbiased like ?.
@Smithweiser: yeah, 4 burly coppers stopped me in the street to fill in their survey while they looked over my shoulder!
@Smithweiser: could ask the same about your comment, a selection of Irelands finest crime families interviewed by you?
I see the Department of Justice are slipping a whole load of new Garda powers through slowly over the last few years so nobody will notice. A disgrace. Even if I had confidence in the Gardai that they all act in good faith, I’d still be against many of the proposed measures.
Civil liberties and freedom are things that you never get back. Once precedents are set, thats it. And for what? These invasive anti-privacy and anti-liberty measures dont work in america and don’t stop crime. They only limit peoples’ freedom. They’ll just end up using these powers to arrest people using cannabis or some usual Garda tactic that makes them look good.
An absolute doozy from the civil liberties …. Gards have no power to demand details of a person’s ethnicity …. so how could it possibly be recorded accurately …. Civil Liberties would be up in arms if gards routinely went around demanding everyone give their religious beliefs and ethnic background… rediculous
@Mc Comascaigh Paul: and how do they accurately assess someone’s ethnicity ? They can ask them and if they do ask them they are recording whatever the person identifys as which could be anything
Yet again the unelected bunch of do gooders are more interested in the “rights” of criminals than normal society.
Agree. Get a warrant from a judge or bugger off.
This is fake news, ya?
A friend of mine had to take private pictures of his body to bring to a medical consultant. And the guards have previous prosecutions for sharing images etc. So there are innocent reasons not to let random guards looking at your phone.
have your say