PSNI accidentally published details of about 10,000 officers and staff

The Police Service of Northern Ireland disclosed on 8 August 2023 that it had accidentally published a spreadsheet containing details of its entire workforce. The file was released in response to a freedom of information request that had asked only for the number of officers and staff at each rank and grade, but the published document also carried a tab with individual records.

The exposed fields covered the surname, first initial, rank or grade, work location and department of all serving officers and civilian staff, around 10,000 people. Private home addresses were not included. Accounts of how long the file stayed online differ: the PSNI told the Guardian it was publicly accessible for up to three hours, while Security Affairs reported it remained available for more than two hours before being taken down.

PSNI assistant chief constable Chris Todd described the release as limited in nature because it contained only surnames and initials, but said it would still be a significant concern to colleagues, and urged anyone who had obtained the data to delete it. In Northern Ireland the disclosure carried unusual risk, since many officers conceal their employment because of the continuing terrorist threat.

The chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland called for urgent safeguards to prevent a repeat. The Information Commissioner's Office said it was examining the incident, which the PSNI attributed to human error rather than any intrusion into its systems.