Police urged to take hundreds of pictures of fans off website
Police are being urged to take down pictures of more than 400 football fans posted after v i o l e n c e f l a r e d a t t h e 2 0 16 Scottish Cup final.
Police Scotland has now disbanded the dedicated team charged with tracking down those who invaded the pitch at Hampden Park, Glasgow, but CCTV images of 414 suspects remain online.
Dr Nick Mckerrell, a lecturer in law and civil liberties at Glasgow Caledonian Universit y, said keeping the CCT V images in the public domain represented a breach of privacy.
“It might be justified if there was a live criminal investigation but that does not appear to be the case,” said Dr MCKerrell.
“If you are going to keep an image of someone who has not been prosecuted for a criminal offence – I would have guessed the vast majority of those men and women on those pictures would not have been – then you can’t keep the image for lengths of time accessible by the public.”
The force said the inquiry is not closed but has confirmed the dedicated team of officers t a s ke d wi t h t r a c k i ng d own fans involved in violent clashes has been disbanded.
More than 180 people were arrested during the long-running inquir y but more than 400 CCTV images of matchd ay s u p p o r t e r s wh o p o l i c e wanted to inter view remain online.
Op eration Tonish was s et u p i n t h e a f t e r ma t h o f t h e violence and disorder which f l a r e d u p a t t h e e n d o f t h e match between Hibernian and Rangers at Hampden Park in Glasgow on 21 May, 2016.
A team of detectives began trawling CCTV, television and social media footage to identify people involved.
But, almost three years on, Police Scotland has confirmed there is no longer a dedicated team of officers investigating the trouble. The force also confirmed 184 people had b een arrested and there were no warrants still active.
T h e i n v e s t i g a t i o n w a s launched after thousands of Hib ernian fans j ump ed the barriers at the final whistle after seeing their team clinch a first S cottish Cup triumph in 114 years with a 3-2 victory. Some Rangers fans also went on to the pitch.
Officers working on Operation Tonish were given p er - mission by the Crown Office t o r e l e a s e p i c t u r e s o f s u s - pects to the media. A Scottish Police Authority (SPA) report revealed the team behind Tonish created 574 suspect profiles from their incident room at Govan Police Office.
Among those tracked down w e r e H i b e r n i a n f a n D a l e Pryde, then 20, of Greendykes, Edinburgh, who in March 2017 was tagged for three months and ordered to carr y out 250 hours of unpaid work after he tried to punch Rangers player Lee Wallace.
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