PSNI data breach: We haven't got to the edges about how serious this could be, says former police head of Organised Crime

Roy McComb was speaking to the News Letter after the names, ranks and workplaces of more than 10,000 officers and staff were published online for a number of hours on Tuesday.

Yesterday the Sunday Times claimed that officials failed to notice three symbols on a spreadsheet that gave access to the sensitive data when clicked, before it was later published on WhatDoTheyKnow, a website that helps members of the public to submit and read FoI requests. It was also claimed that the spreadsheet was viewed by several people at the PSNI headquarters, who did not notice the symbols.

Mr McComb spoke of the safety concerns for officers and staff. “The breach made identifying police officers and staff far easier for members of paramilitaries and organised crime units, and therefore increasing a threat to their safety,” he said. “It's an easy assumption to make that only dissidents will use this information because you have to remember that organised crime units have seen millions of pounds of drugs being seized recently.

“This breach gives groups the potential to use this information and make life difficult for officers. We haven't got to the edges about how serious this could be as the longer term effect of this could impact policing in terms of confidence, finance, amongst others.”

Mr McComb outlined how policing could be affected financially by the crisis: “If officers get compensated then this will all cost money in terms of legal fees, fines, conducting reviews and it could end up leading to having less money to do normal policing. It would be an absolute nightmare situation to have fewer police officers, fewer police vehicles, fewer police stations and no overtime shifts available for the people of Northern Ireland.

“It's very unlikely that the Treasury in London is going to write a multi-million pound cheque and this could further lead to officers having a lack of confidence in the police itself, a lack of public confidence in policing and other longer-term ripples this could have.”

Question marks loom over the future of Chief Constable Simon Byrne but Mr McComb – who is also a former deputy director of the National Crime Agency – argued that this data blunder could allow the PSNI to turn things around by showing “real leadership”.

“We don't know how much it's all going to cost and the wider impact of it all but it's going to be a real challenge to the PSNI and it could turn out to be their worst nightmare or finest hour,” he added. “This provides the chief constable a real challenge to show leadership ... to regain trust and confidence within the organisation and with the public at large.”

Mr McComb believes the PSNI's work with other law enforcement bodies won't be severely affected by the crisis.

“The management of intelligence is handled in a different way and already has significant checks and balances in place,” he continued. “The MI5, the National Crime Agency and Garda Síochána may have a period of reflection but there's no reason for relationships to end.”