Gardaí have identified about 40 suspects they want to speak to about the Dublin riots last November following an “overwhelming” response from the public to the release of 99 images earlier this week.
The large collection of images, stills taken from CCTV footage, was released by the Garda in an unprecedented move on Monday. Gardaí said the people depicted were “persons of interest” who had not been identified in the year since the riots but who formed part of the criminal investigations under way since then.
Some 29 images have since been removed from the bank of 99 on the Garda’s official website because those people have now been formally identified. However, Garda sources said investigators had solid information on another 10 to 15 people and believe they have been identified, subject to confirmation.
“Within minutes of the images going live on Monday we had people contacting us through the website nominating names,” said one source, adding the interest in the images and the response from the public in supplying names had been very positive.
Unlike police forces in many other countries, the Garda does not routinely share images and CCTV footage of people they are seeking as witnesses or suspects in criminal investigations.
However, having spent many months trying to identity the people in the images gathered from the Dublin riots, no progress had been made with the 99 images and so a decision was taken by senior management to ask the public for help.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has expressed concern about the release of the images, and their volume. Its surveillance and human rights policy officer, Olga Cronin, said the Garda was “outsourcing police work” to the public.
The ICCL is concerned that the right to the presumption of innocence, and a fair trial, of those depicted in the images could be compromised. Ms Cronin added some members of the public could take the law into their own hands on viewing the images.
Garda sources said the Irish public had responded very strongly against the violence in the city 12 months ago, and the significant response from the public since the images were published was in keeping with that sentiment.
Investigators are hopeful names of the people in the images will continue to be forwarded via a confidential online portal and that most of those depicted in the content will be identified and traced as part of the ongoing investigation.
To date, gardaí have arrested and charged 57 people with crimes related to the riots, with those suspects having been convicted, or still facing, a total of almost 150 charges. To date, 14 of the suspects have been convicted.
During the night of riots – prompted by the stabbing of children outside a north inner city school but quickly developing into recreational violence – some 28 vehicles were destroyed by arson or criminal damage.
That included a Luas tram being destroyed by fire; three Dublin Buses destroyed by fire; six Dublin Buses subject to criminal damage; 15 Garda vehicles subject to criminal damage; two Dublin Fire Brigade vehicles subject to criminal damage; and a private car destroyed by fire.
A total of 66 premises or places of business were subject to criminal damage and 13 members of An Garda Síochána were injured, including one who severed a toe.
