The truism that policing exists in a state of perpetual controversy punctuated by crises has been brought into sharp focus recently. Controversies involving An Garda Síochána and the cases of Tina Satchwell (Dingivan), Michael Gaine and now Evan Fitzgerald are, to put it mildly, concerning.
It must irritate conscientious and professional gardaí to listen to those of us who do not have to contend with the varied and enormous challenges of policing as we comment with the benefit of hindsight or opine from a position of academic expertise.
But the unique nature of policing and the exceptional powers vested in sworn police officers require that a policing service is accountable whenever there is a question mark over its competence. Effective oversight and accountability are not an impediment to policing. These are, indeed, a necessary condition if it is to be done effectively.
It is simply untenable to seek to operate on a “trust us” basis. Trust must be earned and not presumed and it must never be taken for granted even if surveys show a high degree of public trust in policing.
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To operate as an accountable policing service, Garda management must be comfortable with the duty to provide evidence-based justification in various settings where transparency is required.
To be fair, the current Garda Commissioner has been diligent in his engagement with the Policing Authority (now the PCSA) and Oireachtas committees. His successor will also have to engage, perhaps less visibly, with the newly established Board of An Garda Síochána.
The media play a crucial role in ensuring robust accountability. But an appropriate balance is not always maintained between crime stories that are clearly Garda-sourced and investigative journalism that probes issues of competence or corruption in relation to policing.
Garda representative bodies will squander whatever political capital they have if they do not engage in a more constructive manner with the new commissioner
Both can coexist, but there is self-evidently a prevalence of what is called “copaganda” in much coverage of crime and criminal justice matters. Influencing or shaping media coverage of crime is no proxy for accountability. Recently acknowledged improvements in the reliability and credibility of Garda crime data should be the primary basis upon which An Garda Síochána presents in the public square, not manipulative or salacious briefings. However, it is unlikely that these can ever be eliminated as a news currency of value.
The Tina Satchwell (Dingivan) case is now being reviewed at the request of the Garda Commissioner with a report to be presented in due course to the Policing and Community Safety Authority and the Minister for Justice. The Michael Gaine murder investigation, which is live, is being peer-reviewed in a routine manner.
The Evan Fitzgerald case – in which, thankfully, a higher victim count was avoided – raises a number of disturbing questions.
On what basis was the young man from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, assessed as sufficiently low risk for gardaí to consent to bail being granted? Why did it take the public intervention of the judge involved to correct a media report that gardaí had objected to bail being granted?
Why did it take until the Garda Commissioner appeared before an Oireachtas committee for the story to emerge that non-functioning ammunition had been supplied to Fitzgerald by An Garda Síochána in a controlled delivery as part of an undercover operation?
On what basis did Fiosrú (formerly Gsoc) reach the conclusion, in uncharacteristically quick time, that no further investigation was required?
The recruitment of a new Garda Commissioner presents an opportunity, within the framework of new structures that should have been in place much sooner, to address problems of policing culture that have frustrated the efforts of the current commissioner to drive a reform agenda. The role of the new Garda Board will be of vital importance in this connection, and if there are tensions between Garda management and the board, that could actually be a positive sign.
Garda representative bodies will squander whatever political capital they may have if they do not engage in a more constructive manner with the new commissioner. Maintaining an oppositional stance to reforms that have been implemented and are unlikely to be reversed is futile. Personalising disagreements with garda management is a waste of energy.
In the period from 2017-2018 when the Commission on the Future of Policing consulted with rank-and-file members of An Garda Síochána and middle management, it was crystal clear that there was a keen appetite for reform within the policing service. Many ideas put forward, especially by younger gardaí, were excellent and were adopted enthusiastically by the commission.
The time lost in implementing the recommendations of the commission is regrettable, but many of the reforms implemented – which are probably not as transformational as sometimes claimed – provide a solid basis upon which to proceed with a degree of confidence.
The new commissioner will start with an unenviable list of ongoing controversies. Their job is to ensure that these do not become crises. This is a slightly better context than the one in which the current commissioner commenced his tenure, which was, most definitely, a context of deep crisis.
Donncha O’Connell is an established professor of law in University of Galway. He was a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland
