Kildare Nationalist More than 1000 apply for security payment following PSNI data leak Kildare Nationalist

pppBy Jonathan McCambridge PAppMore than 1000 PSNI officers and staff have taken up an offer of a payment to help with home security improvements following a major data leakppThe Policing Board was told the cost to the force of the scheme is currently 400000ppIn August the details of almost 9500 PSNI officers and staff were mistakenly published in response to a Freedom of Information FoI requestppThe list included the surname and first initial of every employee their rank or grade where they are based and the unit in which they workppppppPolice later said the information is in the hands of dissident republicans and the controversy over the leak contributed to the resignation of PSNI chief constable Simon ByrneppHis replacement Jon Boutcher later announced the universal offer of 500 to all staff to help with securityppProviding an update to the Policing Board the PSNIs chief operating officer Pamela McCreedy said To date weve had just over 1000 claims and the cost of thats coming in in the region of 400000ppSo thats about 400 eachppWe anticipated this some people will already have some measures that theyre satisfied with and this was giving them additional assuranceppAnd we can see theres 350 claims in progress but not finalisedppSo well expect to see those coming through this monthppAnd the workforce have got to the end of March to get all those in so we are quite timeconstrained within the budgetary yearppTheres been a reasonable uptake to dateppp