Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Justice to detail the number of custody images, currently held by the PSNI, of individuals who have not been (i) charged with; and (ii) convicted of a crime.
Minister of Justice: The PSNI estimates they have facial images for approximately 92,509 individuals on the Police National Database (PND). However, PSNI has advised that the number of images held may be higher, as it may hold multiple images of an individual.
PSNI has advised that the number of images of those who have not been charged or convicted of a crime is not readily available. However, PSNI estimates that, based on the estimate that approximately 19% of fingerprints may relate to those without charge or conviction, and applying a similar percentage to images retained, this may equate to approximately 17,576 individuals. Again, it should be noted that the total number of images may be higher than the number of individuals, as PSNI may hold multiple images of an individual.
ENDS
Your MLA 