Initiative set to overhaul garda informant system

THE system for handling garda informants is to be overhauled this year under a major new initiative.

The informant system was severely criticised in the first Morris Tribunal report, which investigated abuses and corruption by certain gardaí in Co Donegal.

The Garda Policing Plan 2006 said the new system would be implemented in the coming year.

The national Covert Human Intelligence System (CHIS) will have a number of new features:

* Informants will now be known as a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS).

* A new Code of Practice will govern the handler/CHIS relationship.

* A rigid system of registration of proposed CHIS for each garda, involving a detailed assessment of the informant.

* A minimum of two people to be involved in the handling of a CHIS.

Details of the new system were drawn up by a garda working group, set up to implement the recommendations in the first Morris report.

In his first report, published in July 2004, Mr Justice Frederick Morris said the Garda Crime and Security section, which handles informants, had “not come to grips” with the informant system.

He called for a “robust review” of the system, preferably conducted by an outside body.

He warned that if a new system was not put in place, further, and worse, police abuses could take place.

Justice Morris found that middle and lower ranking gardaí did not have access to documents on how to handle informants.

He called for a high level of supervision of handlers and informants.

He recommended that an instruction manual be circulated to all gardaí, not just senior officers, and called for an independent outside audit of the new system.

In his second report, published in June 2005, Justice Morris criticised the lack of progress in implementing recommendations in his first report.

Garda management produced a 44-page report detailing their response to the first Morris report.

The report said that while the review of the informant system was carried out internally, the garda working group had consulted widely.

It said a National Source Management Unit, to be “adequately resourced and appropriately structured”, is to be set up within Crime and Security.

The unit will maintain close contact with local supervising officers and conduct periodic reviews.