Garda silence over the death of Derek O'Toole, who was hit by a car carrying four gardaí, has set public antennae quivering, writes Kathy Sheridan
Derek O'Toole might be just another tragic statistic this week, one of the 21 pedestrians who have lost their lives on Irish roads this year, but for two salient factors. The driver and three passengers of the private car that struck him at around 5am last Sunday morning were all off-duty gardaí. Secondly, the Garda chose not to disclose this to the O'Toole family.
Two Garda inspectors met the family at the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown on Sunday and said they had arrested a man. "But there was no mention of gardaí," said Christine O'Toole, Derek's mother. The first they heard that gardaí had been involved was on the radio on Monday morning, 24 hours after Derek's death.
By then, rumour, gossip and lies masquerading as "informed sources" had found the time and space to fester. On Monday, in a well-informed report, partly attributed to "Garda sources", one paper described the victim as someone "who was known to gardaí", the code for a criminal record. He had no such thing.
It was only the restrained, dignified voice of his mother on RTÉ's News at One on Monday that banished the implicit suggestion that Derek O'Neill was just another expendable, drunken thug from a poor area. Even in her grief, Christine O'Toole could discern the subtext: "Just because he lived in Clondalkin does not mean he was a drug addict or a drug dealer or anything else. He was far from it."
So where had the negative spin come from? And why? On Tuesday, Supt Kevin Donohoe of the Garda press office, denied that any such information had been given "officially" to any journalist, and recommended that anyone reading such stories should question whether such a source existed at all, as well as the "accuracy and the reasons why such information would be given".
ELEMENTS OF THE media had disgraced themselves on this occasion, unquestionably. But the Garda had hardly distinguished itself. One experienced reporter who rang the Garda press office on Sunday was given minimal information about the incident. She asked specifically if anyone had been arrested, but was told no, although the driver had in fact been arrested. Neither was she informed that the driver was a garda, although this was clearly a matter of public interest.
While a thorough investigation was being conducted, according to an informed source, including forensic tests to establish who was in what position in the car, public scepticism was palpable. The nature of the incident, the involvement of four gardaí (like a priest, a garda carries his powers and privileges at all times and is therefore never off duty), the many early gaps in the story, the initial suggestion that the call to the emergency services had come from a taxi-driver, and the revelation that information had been withheld from the O'Toole family by gardaí had public antennae quivering.
The most remarkable aspect of this week's events was the speed with which people were prepared to believe the worst of the Garda.
The slow drip-drip of revelation in recent years has triggered new levels of public cynicism, even among those members of the public disposed to be supportive.
Donegal, Abbeylara, the Dean Lyons case, the case of Cynthia Owen, described as "profoundly disturbing" by the Minister for Justice, the failure to respond to Austrian police warnings about paedophiles, the appointment of the officer who led the investigation into Richie Barron's death to a selection panel for Garda Reserve members, the collapse of criminal trials where gardaí have taken short cuts with the evidence, all found an echo in the Morris tribunal's recent conclusion that "insubordination and indiscipline" were widespread within the force. They sit alongside the disturbing report of the Garda Complaints Board in the wake of the Reclaim the Streets debacle in 2002: "We could not identify those members of the Garda [ who were wielding batons]", said chairman Gordon Holmes. "But when we asked their colleagues who were not being charged with anything, we found that each and every one of them seemed to forget who they were and we could not get any identification . . . I suppose that speaks well of their loyalty to their colleagues. But unfortunately, it does not speak that well of their loyalty to the Garda Síochána generally."
A HUGE LEVEL of public unease this week stemmed from the knowledge that Derek O'Neill's death will be investigated by Garda colleagues of the car driver and his passengers. "Give me a reason to have confidence," read one comment on a media website.
Last September, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy said that, while 15 members had been dismissed from the force and 42 had resigned in lieu of being dismissed in the past five years, he was still limited in the action he could take against members that the Morris tribunal had implicated in serious wrongdoing.
"It is very difficult to convict a police officer," the chief executive of the police ombudsman's office in the North, Sam Pollock, said a few weeks ago. "They know every trick in the book. If they are covering something, they can beat you hands down".
However, there is reason for optimism.
Although too late for the O'Neill family, and reportedly dogged with uncertainty around funding, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) will finally open its doors on May 9th at 150 Upper Abbey Street in Dublin.
One of its defining characteristics is that it will have its own independent investigative unit, separate from the Garda. It will also be accountable to the Oireachtas, as opposed to the Minister for Justice, and will operate under the direction of three commissioners, Mr Justice Kevin Haugh, Conor Brady and Carmel Foley. The most senior investigative appointments include the director of investigations, Paul Buschini, who is a former detective superintendent with the Lancashire police and his deputy, Ray Leonard, formerly of the Competition Authority.
The 100-strong staff will include some 40 investigative personnel from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK, South Africa, a number of Irish who have served in police forces overseas, two or three former employees of the Northern Ireland Ombudsman's Office, and others from enforcement bodies such as Revenue and the Competition Authority. There will also be 20 case officers to carry out initial assessments of complaints, three legal officers, and two officers for external and internal communications. The commission has also requested the secondment of up to four skilled, experienced gardaí of superintendent rank to work with the investigations teams.
Although its powers have at times been compared unfavourably with the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Conor Brady notes that, unlike its northern peers, the GSOC will have the power to investigate the actions of off-duty gardaí (which the Northern Ireland Ombudsman does not do) in cases of death or serious harm to a person. On the other hand, while its NI counterpart has powers to enter all police stations, the GSOC can freely enter "most" Garda stations, though not all, because some will contain material important to the security of the State.
"I can't say that we like it, but here the guards are also the national security agency, whereas in the North they have a separate security agency, MI5, and Nuala O'Loan has a very limited remit in regard to MI5."
For less serious complaints, the commission aims to introduce a human dimension between gardaí and complainants, a system of mediation designed to threaten neither and, perhaps, even foster much-needed goodwill. This stems from the belief that most complaints are relatively trivial and, if handled properly, could be dealt with by an apology or a handshake.
In 2005, 36 per cent of the complaints to the old complaints board under Gordon Holmes were on foot of "discourtesy", complaints that could have been dealt with in an informal way. But, wrote the chairman, the board was "worried about the reluctance of gardaí to offer apologies" for genuine mistakes; he gave as an example the case of an unmarked car that frightened a courting couple into thinking they were being attacked. Gardaí, on the other hand, feared that any kind of admission would be a stain on their record. The new scheme will be voluntary, confidential and no record will be retained on Garda files.
The GSOC may be lighting the path to better community relations and a bright new dawn in the Republic's policing. The Garda itself however, still has much to learn.