Obligation to Provide Name and Address

JarekWysocki

Hi guys, looking for advice / peoples views. .
Five males were in a house at a house party, a window was broken. The Gardai were called. One of the males admitted immediately that he broke the window and provided all his details to the Garda. The Garda then went on to demand the names addresses and dates of birth's from the other four males. two of them did but two refused because they claimed they did nothing wrong. The garda said they had to provide details as they were present when the offence occurred. One of the males then provided his name and address etc. but the last fella wouldn't. The Garda left without the fifth fellas name. There is a legislation in the Public Order Act and the Road Traffic Act for Gardai to demand names and addresses, however in this situation unless the person was arrested, is there any obligation for someone to provide his or her details? What happens if later on the person who admitted committing the crime blames one of the others and then claims he doesnt know who they were?

Fred Swanson

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JarekWysocki

Under the road traffic act and public order act. But if the Garda is dealing with a theft or an Assault and doesn't arrest the person, what legislation gives them the authority to demand my details if I was present and don't want to get involved?

Fred Swanson

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GerardKeating

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Would the Garda not be entitled to get the names of potential witness to said offence ?

Fred Swanson

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bellylint

GerardKeating wrote: »

Would the Garda not be entitled to get the names of potential witness to said offence ?

quite simply nope, you are entitled to your privacy until you are under reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime

JarekWysocki

Fred Swanson wrote: »

There is only an obligation to supply a name and address where a Garda believes the person has committed an offence.

Still I don't think that person is obliged to give his or her details.....they can be arrested and then have to furnish them on arrest but looking at statute I do not believe they are obliged to do so

JarekWysocki

Fred Swanson wrote: »

There is only an obligation to supply a name and address where a Garda believes the person has committed an offence.

Still I don't think that person is obliged to give his or her details.....they can be arrested and then have to furnish them on arrest but looking at statute I do not believe they are obliged to do so

Green Peter

Just because a guy admitted the offence does not mean that the investigation is finished. He may be under duress and later say one of the others did the damage and threatened him. If the others were present they could have been involved and the Garda has RCB and can demand name and address. He may lose his chance to investigate it fully by not establishing who they were at the time. It depends on the senario but if the Garda is convinced he has the right person he may not bother taking the other names.

JarekWysocki

Green Peter wrote: »

Just because a guy admitted the offence does not mean that the investigation is finished. He may be under duress and later say one of the others did the damage and threatened him. If the others were present they could have been involved and the Garda has RCB and can demand name and address. He may lose his chance to investigate it fully by not establishing who they were at the time. It depends on the senario but if the Garda is convinced he has the right person he may not bother taking the other names.

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I understand that fully but my question from a legal standpoint is what legislation gives the gaurds the authority to demand the person's name? I agree the hard should get everyones details but I have looked at legislation ad nauseum and can't find anything bar the road traffic or public order act.........

Green Peter

Criminal damage act 1991

GM228

Green Peter wrote: »

Criminal damage act 1991

There is no obligation to provide name and address under the CD Act, there is an exception where a search warrant is involved, but that is not applicable here.

Peregrinus

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Just to pick nits, the Garda can demand your name and address. For that matter, I can demand it. Anyone can. The important issue is not whetehr someone is entitled to ask, but whether you are obliged to answer.

This matters because the garda, in asking for your name and address is not doing anything wrong, not behaving improperly.

For obvious reasons, guards routinely ask for the names and addresses of witnesses or potential witnesses to offences. Prosecution of offences would be extremely difficulty if they could not do this.

Fred Swanson

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GM228

Fred Swanson wrote: »

My take on it is that a person is not obliged to answer unless they are a suspect.

That is correct Fred, but the point Peregrinus is quite rightly making is there is a difference between for example saying "you can't ask me that" as opposed to "I don't have to answer that".

Asking a question is one thing, an obligation to answer is another.

Esel

No obligation to give date of birth, afaik.

whomitconcerns

Why do people have such an issue with this anyway? As they say... Of you have nothing to hide, what does it matter?

Fred Swanson

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whomitconcerns

What I mean is that if a garda in the exercise of his duty asks my name and details I would have no issue giving then to him, just trying to understand why people have such an issue.

RustyNut

whomitconcerns wrote: »

What I mean is that if a garda in the exercise of his duty asks my name and details I would have no issue giving then to him, just trying to understand why people have such an issue.

You could look at it the other way, why should someone give a Guard any information that they are not obliged to? What will happen with the data? How long will it be kept for, will it be deleted if it is no longer required? Who will have access to this data? Could this data that I'm not obliged to give be used against me at some stage in the future? IE find its way to some private organisation or be brought up on national television etc etc..

Peregrinus

As we speak, a UK politician is being publicly pilloried because, 10 years ago, a police investigation into wholly unrelated matters discovered (entirely legal) porn on a computer used by him.

I completely get why people might not want their information appearing in any police database.