PSNI Chief Constable will not walk away from job following data breach

The Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable has said he does not intend to walk away following a significant data breach.

Simon Byrne cut short a family holiday to return to Belfast where he faced several hours of questioning by the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

He said he was “deeply sorry” following the “industrial scale breach of data that has gone into the public domain”, after some details of 10,000 officers and staff were published online for several hours on Tuesday.

Details of another breach following the theft of documents and a laptop from a car in Newtownabbey in July emerged on Wednesday.

Asked whether he had considered his position as Chief Constable, Mr Byrne said in the short term his priority is the wellbeing of officers and staff.

“But equally I know it’s a question that people will be asking, I don’t think leadership is about walking away, it’s facing up to your responsibilities and I think the organisation needs consistency and calm heads at the moment across the team to lead us through what we accept is an unprecedented crisis,” he said.

Asked if members of the Policing Board mentioned him resigning, Mr Byrne replied: “No, they didn’t.”

Speaking after the meeting, Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt said the Chief Constable’s position was not discussed at the meeting of the Policing Board.

“I’m not going to give a kneejerk reaction to it, and my focus is on the security and the safety of the men and women of the police service and of the service team, and I think Simon is genuine about doing all he can to deal with their safety and security,” he said.