Infusing culture of change in An Garda Síochána

Last week, interim Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan addressed the first intake of recruits in over five years, against a backdrop of controversy in the force. The following is an abridged version of her address

THIS was unusual, as recruitment processes go. Not that many organisations set out to recruit 100 people and find 25,000 applying.

More than 25,000 people out there dreamed of becoming members of An Garda Síochána. I hope some of them get another chance and end up, like yourselves, here in Templemore.

Because it is a career like no other, changing faster than any other. For the last couple of years, we’ve been under constant scrutiny — sometimes enmeshed in controversy, some of it created by ourselves.

But you know what we shouldn’t forget — 25,000 people want to join An Garda Síochána. Like you, they know change is needed within the service, but they still want to join us, still want to commit their lives to the police service.

I fully expect that the excellent staff here at the college will make sure that you are challenged every day you’re here. For as TS Eliot said — “if you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”

You’re all part of a unique group, starting out on what is quite literally a new adventure. Yes, you’re recruits, as we all were, back in the day. The difference is that you are the first students to enter the college to train as full members of An Garda Síochána under a new and revised training programme.

You’re also the first group to attain a BA in applied policing. The degree hammers home that policing is now a profession. Like any profession, we must demonstrate, every day, ethical behaviour.

Training in the college was overhauled in 2009 to equip those attending courses here with the tools to assist them in everyday policing situations. You will be encouraged to foster critical thinking, take personal responsibility, and be accountable for your decisions.

The focus of your training will be on two important things — problems, and your response to them. From the very start of the course, you’re going to be faced with real life issues. Your analytical skills will be required, and your ability to identify and put in place a suitable course of action.

An Garda Síochána has adapted and continues to adapt to the evolving needs of a modern, multi-cultural, technologically-savvy Ireland.

And have no doubt, that as the first students in five years, you will come under a certain level of scrutiny from inside and outside An Garda Síochána.

That’s for two reasons:

-You are entering a profession in which you will bear daily scrutiny once you put on your uniform in every interaction with the public and communities you will be serving.

-Templemore won’t be trying to catch you out. We’ll be trying to catch you doing things right.

Nor will this scrutiny be borne in isolation. You are already a natural support group for each other. The college staff are here to support you, members of the service with numerous years of experience will support you, and Garda management are here to support you.

I’ve mentioned differences between you and past recruits. Now, I want to tell you about the most important difference of all.

From today, each one of you is responsible for Garda culture. That wasn’t the way it was at any stage in the past. In the past, culture — meaning the way we do things, the assumptions we operate on, the habits and reflexes that make us guards — in the past, that culture came from the top. It’s time to upend it. Yes, the direction must be set down from the top, but each of you, like every other member of An Garda Síochána have an individual responsibility to behave professionally and ethically.

There is not much point in taking the hundred best out of 25,000 and not gaining from your creativity, your insight, and your passion for policing.

If you think you’ve a better way of approaching a problem, don’t stay silent. Make yourself heard in the interests of the police service and of the people we serve. Help to infuse openness throughout An Garda Síochána. If you do it right, and if we play our part by not coming out with the reflex comment “that’s not the way we do things, around here”, then maybe in a couple of years’ time, when people talk of the culture within An Garda Síochána, they’ll mean a culture of excitement and ideas, of respect and challenge, of openness and generosity.

Because that’s the only culture that’ll keep people like you with us. And we really want to keep you with us.