Around 150 gardaí in Dublin began gathering evidence using body-worn cameras on Friday as the Garda rolled out the equipment in a major development for Irish policing.
The cameras can now be used to gather evidence to prosecute suspects, including agitators at protests and other events. As well as the 150 gardaí already trained and equipped to use the cameras, a further 200 Dublin-based gardaí will be trained in the next fortnight before the roll-out is extended to Limerick and Waterford cities.
Taoiseach Simon Harris, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris marked the development at an event at Store Street Garda station in Dublin 1 on Friday.
“It’s been a long frustration of many people in this country that often if seems the only person at the scene of a crime or a protest without a camera is a guard,” the Taoiseach said, adding that the cameras would help to safeguard the rights of gardaí and the public while also assisting the force in solving crimes.
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Ms McEntee said it was a “really significant day” for An Garda Síochána and its members. “They have been telling me from many years they want body cameras, not just to keep themselves safe but because it would be an important tool ... in responding to crime and protecting victims as well.”
Commissioner Harris said he believed the cameras would be invaluable when gardaí “receive first complaints” of assaults, domestic abuse and sexual assaults.
He said he had seen how cameras “temper behaviour” in volatile situations when he worked in Belfast as a PSNI officer. Furthermore, he said, if body-worn cameras had been available to gardaí during the Dublin riots last November, they would have greatly aided the investigation into the violence and threats made.
“We’ve thousands and thousands of hours of CCTV but what we don’t have is the audio and the audio betrays the intent of the individual,” he said.
Legislation allowing for the use of the cameras, and the storage and processing of footage for use as evidence, has been in place since December. However, the extent and speed of the roll-out has been taken some by surprise.
The cameras, mounted on the jackets of uniformed gardaí, are turned on and off manually. They have a flashing red light, or a live-streaming screen, to alert the public that they are being recorded. Gardaí will also inform people verbally when the cameras are being switched on.
However, gardaí are not legally obliged to inform members of the public when recording is taking place in public spaces, though people must be informed, unless it is unsafe for gardaí to do so, when recording is taking place in a private setting.
[ Explainer: How will the new Garda body-worn cameras work in practice?Opens in new window ]
Gardaí at Store Street station joined their colleagues from Pearse Street and Kevin Street as the first members of the force to use the cameras from 9am on Friday. The scheme will next be extended to Henry Street Garda station in Limerick and then to Waterford City in the coming months. Although the initial roll-out covers just five stations, it will involve about 700 Garda members. A national roll-out is to start in about 12 months.
The vast majority of the first tranche of gardaí to use the cameras will be uniformed frontline personnel. However, some detectives in Waterford will also use them from later in the summer.
The next nine to 12 months will effectively be a “proof-of-concept” project, with the cameras – and the legislation and technology their use is based on – subjected to a live trial and learning process. However, video footage is being gathered and stored immediately and can be used from Friday to ground prosecutions as the scheme has a full legal footing.
The Garda Representative Association, which represents rank-and-file gardaí, and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have campaigned for the cameras for years.
The roll-out comes at a time when senior Garda management has become increasingly concerned at the volume of work generated by reviewing and processing video footage gathered during investigations. They believe the footage available from body-worn cameras, with a streamlined and secure storage system, will greatly reduce the time required to pursue prosecutions based exclusively, or even partially, on video evidence.
Senior management also believes the cameras, especially when used by large numbers of gardaí in the same place, will prove instrumental in identifying suspects in chaotic public-order incidents and linking them to physical assaults and threats issued.
The footage could also be used by members of the public as evidence when they make complaints, up to criminal allegations, to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission about individual gardaí.
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