The task of purging the Garda is essential if it is to begin with a new slate, according to the president of the Human Rights Commission, Maurice Manning.
"The past few years were very bad for the Garda Síochána, as the litany of things that should not happen but did happen unfolded. There must be a realisation of this within the force," Dr Manning said.
Speaking at a conference on "Policing in an Multi-Ethnic Society", organised by Amnesty International and the ICCL in Dublin yesterday, Dr Manning said part of overcoming this would be putting a human rights culture at the heart of the Garda.
This was likely to be met by internal resistance, indifference and even outright hostility, as it had been in every police force that had gone down this road. But these must be resisted.
"Those driving change need our support. The last thing they need is constant carping."
He said those resisting change often presented the issues of policing and human rights as incompatible. "This is not so. Policing that respects human rights will be more effective."
He pointed out that the PSNI, which had embraced this idea, was now being used as a model by the Council of Europe when working on human rights in police forces. Its example should be followed by the Garda.
This includes the use of highly qualified outside advisers, the publication and acceptance of a register of human rights and a code of ethics, and the incorporation of human rights training into all other police training.
Det Insp George Rhoden, chair of the London Metropolitan Black Police Officers' Association, said the group was set up in 1994 following a seminar on why officers from ethnic minorities left the Metropolitan Police after a few years. Those attending the seminar revealed stories of rampant institutional racism within the police.
It was years before the association received acceptance, and it now sits on a number of official bodies, he said, It took the inquiry into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence at the hands of white racists, and an inquiry into racism in the police by Bill Morris following the targeting of a number of black officers as criminals, for changes in policy to come about.
He asked if the Garda Síochána was ready for the changes that were needed, were members of the force ready to accept changes in its culture. "Otherwise, the recruitment of ethnic minorities will be cosmetic, and you will be faced with litigation after litigation," he said.
Chief Supt Pat Cregg, head of the Garda community relations office, said he had no answers to these questions at the moment. The most difficult thing about recruiting members of ethnic minorities would be ensuring there was a welcome for them, he said, and already the force was addressing issues of uniform, food and culture that might arise.
"The fact that a 2004 survey showed an 82 per cent approval rating confuses the issue," he said. "I always think of the 18 per cent that was not satisfied. That probably includes some of the most vulnerable in society."