Northern Ireland’s police chief under pressure to resign over data leak

Open this photo in gallery:

The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland has rejected calls to resign over a massive data breach that resulted in the force inadvertently posting key information about its 9,000 officers and staff on a website.

“I am deeply sorry about what has happened,” Chief Constable Simon Byrne told a news conference on Thursday. “You can only imagine the unconscionable horror as people start to realize that maybe a loved one is put in jeopardy by what they are seeing.”

However, the Chief Constable ruled out quitting over the debacle, which has raised fears about the safety of officers who could be targeted by paramilitary groups. “Leadership is not about walking away, it’s facing up to responsibility. We need consistency and calm heads to lead us through an unprecedented crisis,” he said.

The PSNI has been engulfed in a crisis since Tuesday, when it revealed that personal details of every employee had been released as part of a freedom of information request. A member of the public had asked for the number of officers at each rank and the number of staff at each pay grade. The PSNI’s response included a spreadsheet that listed the first initial and surname of every officer and staff member. The document also contained each officer’s rank, location and unit. Among those listed were 40 officers attached to Britain’s MI5 intelligence service, as well as officers who work in surveillance and undercover.

The information was posted on an FOI website and remained online for nearly three hours before it was removed. The next day the PSNI also revealed that a police laptop containing personal details of 200 officers had been stolen from a car north of Belfast. The theft occurred on July 7 but wasn’t reported to senior officers for three weeks.

The data breaches have caused panic among many officers and raised questions about public’s trust in the police.

The PSNI was created in 2001 as an outgrowth of the peace process that ended decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. It replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which had been dominated by Protestants and shunned by Catholics.

Northern Ireland sees growing angst about sectarian strife and Brexit

The force has tried to modernize policing across the province and recruit from all communities. However, deep mistrust remains and threats against officers have increased in recent months, particularly from dissident republicans known as the New IRA.

In February, Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot several times while unloading soccer balls from his van after a youth soccer match. Mr. Caldwell survived and seven men with links to the New IRA have been charged with attempted murder.

A few weeks later, MI5 increased the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland from “substantial” to “severe,” largely because of concerns about violence aimed at police.

“Our biggest threat is those dissident republicans that want to kill and injure police officers,” Chief Constable Byrne told reporters in June. “At the moment I am receiving virtually daily briefings about plots and plans to hurt police officers and to kill them. It is a real worry.”

There have been reports that republican paramilitaries have been sharing information from the data breaches on WhatsApp. That has rattled many officers, especially those from Catholic neighbourhoods who often keep their jobs secret from relatives and friends because of safety concerns.

“This is a breach of monumental proportions,” said Liam Kelly, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland. “We have many colleagues who do everything possible to protect their police roles.”

Mark Durkan, a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, which oversees the PSNI, said it wasn’t clear if dissident republicans have the data, but the police will have to operate on the assumption that they do.

“Over the next couple of days we could see the outworking of that in terms of attacks on officers,” Mr. Durkan said Thursday. “I can only imagine the stress this is causing some families right across the organization, but particularly for officers from nationalist backgrounds who have been subject to a higher level of threat over the years.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Chief Constable Byrne acknowledged the fear among many PSNI members and the public. He said so far no officers had been relocated because of the breach but 500 officers have been referred to a special service that analyzes the level of risk they face.

He added that an investigation is under way to determine why the spreadsheet had been disclosed. The force has managed to wipe the stolen computer remotely, he said, but it’s still not clear why it took so long for the theft to be reported.

“We need to understand what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Chief Constable Byrne said.