Garda Complaints - Public trust must not be abused

At the launch yesterday of the annual report of the Garda Complaints Board for 2006, the chairman, Gordon Holmes, called for a reappraisal of the licensing laws in light of the increase in public order offences taking place around the country after closing time. This has been partly responsible for growing number of complaints against the gardaí.

During the year there were 1,223 complaints, which was an increase of 8.6%. Those ranged from minor matters of discourtesy to complaints of excessive force being used, and even accusations of serious assault against specific gardaí.

The Complaints Board was unable to adjudicate on the merits of many complaints, because those amounted to one person’s version against the word of a garda, who told a very different story. In such instances there was nothing the board could do.

Mr Holmes stated, for instance, people — who were so drunk that they could not afterwards remember what had actually happened — made many complaints against gardaí. The board was clearly annoyed, however, that some of complaints that it registered were essentially ignored by the Garda Commissioner.

Moreover, the gardaí exhibited a “total inability” to apologise for their mistakes.

The chairman was particularly critical of gardaí for refusing to apologise for one drug search in which they raided the apartment of a totally innocent couple who were both out at work.

“They broke down the door, caused damage to the apartment and then discovered that their suspect did not actually live there,” the report noted.

This incident is a consequence of the growth of a drug culture, which “is in grave danger of becoming almost acceptable,” according to Mr Holmes.

“The gardaí are entitled to the full support, confidence and gratitude of the whole country for what they have done in combating the gangland lawlessness that has made some of the streets of some of our major cities resemble Chicago in the 1920s.”

Having made a genuine mistake, the gardaí should have been big enough to admit that mistake and apologise. Instead, the aggrieved couple were treated so contemptibly that they found it necessary to protest to the Complaints Board.

For a force that has to rely so heavily on public co-operation, the Garda ought to be acutely aware of their public image. They should be particularly conscious of the need for transparency in matters of discipline, because so much of their power is founded on public trust.

Allowing that public trust to be abused by the misbehaviour of even a few individual gardaí will inevitably undermine the power and influence of the Garda Síochána itself.

Thus, the Garda should not only be above suspicion; they should be seen to be so.

That may seem incongruous when the criminals they are dealing with are entitled to a presumption of innocence until their guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but that is a necessary price of freedom.