Wicklow County Council refers itself to data watchdog after dashcams recorded firefighters for years

Wicklow County Council has referred itself to the Data Protection Commissioner after confirming that dashcams fitted to the cabs of appliances based in four stations were recording members of the local fire service over a prolonged period without their knowledge.

In correspondence with Sinn Féin TD John Brady, the council said the dashcams had been fitted to vehicles based at stations in Bray, Greystones, Wicklow Town and Arklow in 2020 by an outside contractor at the request of station managers on safety grounds. However, council officials had initially been unaware of the device’s ability to record conversations between firefighters in the cabs.

It confirmed, however, that recordings obtained were stored although it says that recordings, from two of the four vehicles, were accessed on just one occasion, on July 31st last year and that the equipment was disabled and removed from cabs in April of this year.

It is understood that accessing of the recordings last summer was carried out as part of an investigation into an unrelated internal matter.

In its letter, the council said its data protection officer had informed the Data Protection Commissioner and that all firefighters, serving and retired, who had travelled in the vehicles during the time covered, had been informed.

Mr Brady says he believes up to 30 firefighters have already lodged complaints with the Data Protection Commissioner and there is widespread concern among members of the service across the county regarding the explanation provided by the council.

A key issue of concern, he says, is a video posted on Facebook in 2019 but which dates from early 2018 that appears to contain footage and audio from a cab based in Greystones.

The video, Mr Brady suggests, raises questions about the timeline provided by the council and the accuracy of its communications with the Data Protection Commissioner.

I think it requires a full investigation and is something the Minister should be looking at because it calls into question the accuracy of what they have told the Data Protection Commissioner

—  John Brady TD

“I think it all raises pretty serious questions,” he told The Irish Times on Thursday. “the fact that there is footage there online from two years earlier certainly seems to contradict what the council has said, both in relation to the timing of the installation and the claim that the data was only accessed by one person July 31st, 2023 and that the data was secure, that there was a controller ensuring that all of this data was protected under GDPR.

“I think it requires a full investigation and is something the Minister should be looking at because it calls into question the accuracy of what they have told the Data Protection Commissioner. I tried to raise the matter with Minister Darragh O’Brien this week but he said it was a matter for the local authority. I’ve gone back to the council now with further questions but have yet to receive any response to those.”

Responding to queries from The Irish Times regarding some of the issues raised, Wicklow County Council declined to comment but Siptu officials said they had received much the same account of what had happened and assurances from the council.

Senior official Brendan O’Brien said they were now consulting with members in the Wicklow fire service to see what their view on the explanation provided was and that “we will see what we do on the issue after that”.

He said he was unaware of individual firefighters having contacted the Data Protection Commissioner already but said he was not surprised by the suggestion up to 30 have done so.