Catholic PSNI officers and civilian staff have been urged to “pause” and seek advice rather than quit the organisation following an unprecedented data breach in which their personal and employment information was published online.
Supt Gerry Murray, chairman of the Catholic Police Guild, which represents hundreds of PSNI employees, told The Irish Times he was concerned that the controversy would affect recruitment to the police from the Catholic community – historically underrepresented in the force.
He called on PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne to “reassure” Catholic officers and civilian staff and put preventive measures in place.
“A mother and father looking at their young son or daughter would be saying to them, this is not the time to be going forward to join the police,” he said. “What we need to do is build confidence, bridges to the Catholic, nationalist, republican areas so we have a good spread of young people coming forward.”
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The PSNI on Tuesday mistakenly released the surnames, first initials and employment details – including where they work and their department – of every serving police officer and civilian member of staff, more than 10,000 people, alongside a response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
Dissident republicans claimed they had accessed the information, which was available online for several hours before being removed.
In a statement on Friday night, Mr Byrne said he held a number of meetings with representatives from staff associations, including the Catholic Guild, to listen to concerns. He said he was “committed to supporting everyone affected by the recent data breach”.
Almost 2,000 police officers had by Friday evening registered an interest in joining any legal action which might be taken against the PSNI over the data breach, according to the Police Federation of Northern Ireland.
Dr Jonny Byrne, senior lecturer in criminology at Ulster University, estimated that the breach could end up costing £40-£50 million (€46-€58 million) in compensation and fines alone. The number of individuals who have contacted a PSNI group set up to look at welfare concerns arising from the leak had risen to 900 as of Friday.
A Catholic PSNI officer, who is originally from the Republic, told RTÉ’s Liveline programme that he had decided to leave Northern Ireland following the leak, describing it as the “nail in the coffin” and explaining his wife “can’t live under this kind of pressure”.
Supt Murray said that, among the individuals he represents, he had not spoken to anyone who intended to leave their job, but he described the data breach as a “huge tornado” which had hit them “like a blunt instrument” in the wake of the attempted murder of DCI John Caldwell and the raising of the terrorist threat level to severe.
“They’re vulnerable and they’re anxious and they’re trying to comprehend all that has happened over this short period of time.”
He said one police officer who was a long-standing member of a GAA club had been “rocked” by the leak and had left the club because he “doesn’t feel safe”.
“People may now know he’s a police officer, and once people know you are a police officer and there are discussions, nobody knows where that will end up, and he has to think primarily for his family, his child and himself,” he said.
