Goggins challenged over retention of personal information of innocent children
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney challenged NIO Minister Paul Goggins over
the
retention of personal information of children innocent of any crime.
Mr
McCartney said:
"Sinn Fein challenged Paul Goggins about the
collection and retention of DNA and fingerprints by the PSNI from young
people and children. This information must be destroyed. The NIO Minister
today said that he would provide an exact breakdown of what has been done so
far on this to the Committee at Sinn Féin's request.
"On
police powers, most of these were proposed months ago by the NIO. Sinn Féin
was the only party to formally respond and politically oppose these. Other
parties fixate on the Policing Board's achievements. In reality, it has
failed to hold the PSNI to account on political policing and collusion. They've
given a free hand to the political detectives.
"Today it was also
revealed that the Policing Board has approved a new
tranche of
detectives to be recruited into the PSNI who will not be subject
to the
Patten provisions of 50/50 recruitment. They've also dropped the ball
on
designation of police support staff, with Paul Goggins confirming, under
questioning
from Sinn Féin today, that positions as sensitive as Scene of
Crime
Officers (SoCOs) will remain exempt from the powers of the Police
Ombudsman
under the draft Order tabled." ENDS