Watchdog hits back at Garda claims over number of cases probed

THE Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) yesterday hit back at complaints by senior gardaí that they had to investigate up to half of its cases.

At their annual conference on Tuesday, Association of Garda Superintendents president Martin Shanahan said it was “unacceptable” his members were being referred so many complaints by the GSOC.

At the conference, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy appeared to provide some backing to the claims.

“I’m supportive of the view that, if at all possible, the need to ensure that the ombudsman commission investigate as much complaints as possible. That ensures the independence of the commission,” he said.

Figures from the GSOC’s annual report covering the period from May 2007 to December 2008, show that of the complaints investigated, 1,280 were done by GSOC and 1,164 were referred back to the gardaí. A GSOC spokesman yesterday said: “The superintendents association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors before them are resisting, with the agreement of Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, having to carry out investigations into disciplinary matters.” He said the vast majority of complaints they were referring back were relatively minor, typically concerning matters of Garda discipline, rather than potential criminality.

“What we are talking about [the] Garda investigating are low-level complaints, for example, that gardaí promised to send a car around and no one never showed up or that a garda checking my insurance and was rude and the like,” said the GSOC spokesman.

“We believe very strongly these are management matters. They are not suggesting criminality on the part of gardaí. We would suggest that gardaí should not be allowed abdicate their responsibility to manage people under their control. Taking responsibility away from gardaí for management undermines their authority.”

He said the Independent Police Complaints Commission in Britain referred 98% of their cases to police and the GSOC would need “vast resources” if they were to investigate all complaints.

The spokesman said they were looking for changes to the legislation which would enable them to refer even more cases to the gardaí.

He said the law appeared to require the GSOC to investigate all cases where there is potential criminal behaviour on the part of the garda complained of. He said when it assess these cases there is often no criminal behaviour and in these cases they want the discretion to refer them to the gardaí.