Gardaí have removed a further nine images from the public gallery of people they wish to speak to in relation to last November’s Dublin riots.
Photographs of 99 “persons of interest” harvested from CCTV on the night of November 23rd were published on the Garda website, garda.ie.
A very significant public response to the appeal for information has been received, an Garda Síochána said in a statement and five images were earlier removed on Tuesday night.
“The purpose of the publication was to identify these 99 ‘persons of interest’ to either rule each individual ‘in or out’ of the investigation and progress the criminal investigative process,” the statement said.
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“An Garda Síochána is not confirming at this time the role of any of these individuals in the events of the November 23rd, 2023, and it should not be presumed that identification means criminal involvement in these events.”
The Garda has urged anyone who could provide information or nominate identification for any of the 85 remaining people on the site to do so confidentially.
“An Garda Síochána would encourage any person who identifies themselves as a ‘person of interest’ from the published images to make immediate contact with the Garda investigation team at Store Street Garda station,” the statement said.
The investigation team at Store Street Garda station can be contacted by telephone at 01-6668000 or by email at store.street.public@garda.ie.
Earlier, Olga Cronin, senior policy officer in the area of surveillance and human rights with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, described the release of images as “a significant outsourcing of police work”.
“Our concerns are that there could be unintended consequences to this. And people have a right to presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Ms Cronin acknowledged that gardaí had the right to use the resources and tools to do their work, but this was a departure and was different in terms of scale and reach and the consequences, she said.
“What’s happening here is members of the public en masse have been asked to look at these images and who do you think those people are?”
There was a possibility that some people would take things further and what would happen if people were to take the law into their own hands, she said.
“What if the Garda accidentally put some of these people’s safety at risk?” Ms Cronin asked, questioning whether the risks to the individuals identified in the images had been mitigated by the Garda.
“They should have done a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) which would outline the risks and steps to mitigate those risks. And we would very much welcome it if they could publish that DPIA to allay people’s concerns.”
