Question
In response to a recent question regarding the Application of Spit and Bite Guards, the Chief Constable stated that:
“There is no information available regarding the breakdown of the uses by community background as this information is not collected.”
The PSNI commented recently to the press that:
“The Police Service of Northern Ireland do not hold data on the use of spit and bite guards and community background / disability as this data is not collected. There was some anecdotal data included in the EQIA document but this was caveated by the fact that it was not recorded at the time of the application. Rather, it was obtained from Police Service systems for the EQIA and therefore is not a reliable source of data to allow a meaningful comparison.”
The stage 7 report of the EQIA for the guards sets out a detailed procedure for the collection of this data (28th June 2024).
Please explain whether data on religion and/or community background is currently being collected from those subject to spit and bite guards and if not, why not, given the issues raised by the data provided within the initial EQIA? Moreover, will the failure to collect such data continue into the future?
Answer
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) do not specifically collect data on religion and/or community background from those subject to Spit and Bite Guards. There is no legislative enabler to collect this data from individuals following any use of force by PSNI officers/staff. The computerised system( Niche) that the PSNI use for crime recording and custody does have a range of data collection fields linked to master (person) files including date of birth, personal descriptors and religion. The religion field is limited to 3 options – Catholic, Protestant or Other.
For the purpose of the Equality Impact Assessment document (EQIA), data on religion and/or community background was obtained from Police Service systems such as custody records, considering that individuals with Spit and Bite Guards applied were likely to be processed in custody. This is caveated by the fact that it is based on voluntary declarations from the individuals and cannot be regarded as wholly reliable.
There is an absence of a universally recognised definition of community background and we feel that it would extend far beyond the current religion data field on the Niche computer system.
PSNI are currently operating a pilot for recording community background data in relation to stop and search powers. This pilot work incudes trying to develop the principal fields that will be required to accurately collect community background i.e. substantially representing the relevant community groups in Northern Ireland. Upon the conclusion of this pilot an assessment will be made as to the future gathering of this data type, in relation to the use of other police powers including the use of Spit and Bite Guards.
In the interim, Police will continue to glean demographic information from other Police systems where appropriate and available.
Les Allamby