April 09, 2025 | Organisational Information and Performance , Policies
Request Number: FOI/14159
Category: Policy and Procedures - Policies
Subject: Emergency Vehicle Policy
Request and Answer:
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.
Request 1
I spot emergency vehicles. E.g. taking photos of marked vehicles / unmarked vehicles (blurring of plates on both marked & unmarked), what is the PSNIs policy in regards to photos of marked vehicles?
Clarification sought - Can you clarify the question further? For example, are you seeking policies in regard to members of the public taking photos of marked vehicles? Or is it in relation to media photos of marked vehicles?
Clarification received – Yes members of public.
Answer 1
Police vehicles in the public domain are not privy to any specific protections and members of the public may take photographs as they would of any other private vehicles in the public domain.
There are however specific risks posed to PSNI officers by those that seek to cause harm in Northern Ireland. It is therefore possible the photographing of police officers in the course of their duties will be challenged. These challenges would come from a perspective that photographs of police vehicles, patrolling or officer’s faces may be considered ‘information of use to terrorists’. Holding information of use to terrorists is a criminal offence. The application of these challenges will be down to the discretion of individual officer challenging and the circumstances in which the photographs are being taken.
Request 2
If no policy is in place, are you able to provide suitable advice that would suffice? Would doing this in NI be OK?
Answer 2
You are asking PSNI a question i.e. Yes/No as opposed to requesting recorded information under Section 84 of FOI Act which states “information … means information recorded in any form”. To assist we can advise that Section 84 of FOIA relates to recorded information held by a public authority and that it does not extend to providing explanations unless the answers are already held in a recorded form.
“Information is defined in Section 84 of the Act as information recorded in any form. The Act therefore only extends to requests for recorded information. It does not require public authorities to answer questions generally; only if they already hold the answers in recorded form. The Act does not extend to requests for information about policies or their implementation, or the merits or demerits of any proposal or action – unless, of course, the answer to any such request is already held in recorded form.” ( Day vs ICO & DWP – EA/2006/0069 Final Decision)