Gardaí’s 3,000 complaints

ABOUT 3,000 complaints were made to the Garda Ombudsman Commission in its first year of operation — including the deaths of 17 members of the public.

So far complaints deemed worthy of investigation have outnumbered inadmissible complaints by two to one, leaving the commission with 750 investigations under way and hundreds more complaints to be assessed.

“That is, we say, beyond the capacity of the number of investigators in our staff,” said commission chair Mr Justice Kevin Haugh.