An Garda Siochana will be instructed to immediately begin buying bodycams, with the legislation to allow them to do so, set to be passed in a matter of weeks. Justice Minister Helen McEntee will also introduce a separate law to allow for the use of facial recognition technology in limited circumstances.
The Justice Minister will tell her colleagues this morning that Gardaí will immediately begin tendering to buy bodycams with the legislation set to be approved before the summer recess. The Green Party had demanded the use of facial recognition technology by the Gardaí not be part of that Bill and have won the in-Government argument on that.
Instead a standalone Bill will be prepared in September to allow gardaí to retrospectively apply facial recognition to footage they already have. The live use of facial recognition, or mass surveillance of crowds, won't be permitted.
Gardaí will only be allowed to use the technology during investigations where the penalty for the crime is life imprisonment. This will include cases of homicide, rape and aggravated sexual assault, child sexual abuse and child abduction.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has been seeking access to facial recognition technology to reduce the time taken to sift manually through thousands of hours of CCTV footage when investigating serious cases.
While the Justice Minister believes it's a tool the gardaí need in a digital age, Helen McEntee will tell Cabinet she's also aware of the concerns about the use of such technology, which will now be more deeply debated by the Oireachtas.
