The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has written to Dublin city regeneration chief Robert Watt querying the legal basis for having “private security actors” on public streets in the city.
Plans are being advanced to hire “safety operatives” to patrol Dublin city centre following discussions between business representatives and Robert Watt’s new city regeneration authority.
Watt, the former Department of Health secretary general, has been appointed to lead the Dublin City Development Company, which is tasked with regenerating O’Connell Street and the surrounding area.
A tender is being drafted for the operatives. Business lobby group DublinTown is understood to be acting as the contracting body and initial funding is expected to be provided by prominent city businesses.
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The plans have been formulated without consultation with Dublin city councillors, who have demanded “full scrutiny” of the legal and civil liberty implications.
In a letter to Watt, ICCL head of policy Olga Cronin said introducing “private policing to our public streets would result in a fundamental shift in our capital city, and in the relationship between private companies, local government, An Garda Síochána and the public”.
She pointed out the current legislation defined security guards as those “guarding a property, premises or a private event”, and asked if a new licensing category needed to be created. “Will qualifications required for licensing need to be changed or updated?” Cronin said.
Details of any proposals, “including the precise duties, obligations and limits envisaged of the private security actors”, should be presented to city councillors before any tender is drafted, she said. “These details should include the specific legal basis for such a move and an evidence-based explanation outlining why private security actors are needed to police our public streets when that is the job of An Garda Síochána.”
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Dublin City Council said on Wednesday that the proposed wardens would not have additional statutory powers to arrest, search or demand identification from people or to issue fines or enforce local authority bylaws.
It said its project management unit, which is being headed by Watt in advance of the legal incorporation of the new regeneration company, has been conducting research and looking to other jurisdictions to “inform best practice” on options to improve safety on the city’s streets and provide additional supports to An Garda Síochána, residents and the business community.
It said a full report on the proposal is being finalised and the matter will be on the agenda of next month’s city council meeting. “The final decision on this will respect all appropriate decision-making protocols.”
Watt said he had not yet seen the letter from the ICCL, but said: “When the proposal is finalised people can scrutinise and decide whether we should proceed or not.”
