The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) have submitted a list of amendments to proposed legislation on garda use of recording devices.

The organisations say that the changes are needed to safeguard people’s rights to privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and non-discrimination.

They say that the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill will “vastly expand” garda use of devices capable of recording people and their movements by capturing still images, video footage and sounds in public spaces and places.

These devices include drones, body-worn cameras, and animal-worn cameras.

Surveillance devices

The bill also allows the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and provides for live access to third-party CCTV.

The bill also proposes to change the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009 so that the definition of ‘surveillance device’ excludes “video cameras” capable of taking “video footage”.

ICCL and DRI have called for this part of the bill to be removed, arguing that it has the net effect of changing the law on covert surveillance.

‘Focused monitoring’

Among the other amendments submitted to legislators is a proposal to ensure that the monitoring of a particular vehicle by gardaí is carried out only if the measure is approved by a judge.

“The bill currently provides that a superintendent, or a higher-ranking garda, can approve a member of garda personnel to use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to carry out ‘focused monitoring’ of a particular vehicle for at least three months,” ICCL and DRI stated.

They added that this provision was not in the general scheme of the bill “and therefore not subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny”.

The two bodies have also put forward an amendment to ensure that all types of recording devices or systems used are specified in a relevant code of practice.

They have also called for a new section requiring the online publication of a rolling list of all devices approved for usage under this legislation.

The two organisations have also proposed a change to provide for pilot schemes to be carried out for each type of recording device prior to general deployment by gardaí.