Strong opposition to proposed Garda reforms, specifically to the force's oversight agencies, has been voiced by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.
His views are contained in a submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality as part of pre-legislative scrutiny of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill. Measures in the Bill arise from the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing. It was established in 2017 and chaired by former Boston police chief Kathleen O'Toole. Following years of Garda controversies, including the Sgt Maurice McCabe whistleblower affair, the commission was charged with formulating a plan to reform the Garda and its oversight agencies. Harris was appointed at the same time the commission reported and his role was to implement the commission's reforms.
Three years on, he now believes the Bill goes much further than the commission intended. He is opposed to new powers for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) which investigates complaints against Garda members. Harris believes the decision to bring Garda civilian staff under the remit of Gsoc is not justified. He also suggests that the changes envisaged would subject sworn members of the Garda to a system of investigation that is so unfair, it will collapse under legal challenges. He complains Garda members will be given no timeline for how long investigations into their behaviour might take and will have no right to know the precise allegation involved. He also says a new power to allow for unannounced searches by Gsoc investigators will not be subject to judicial oversight – as Garda searches are – or any other form of checks.
The Garda Síochána has had a notoriously uneasy relationship with oversight, specifically with Gsoc. That history will inevitably and rightly colour public perceptions of Harris’s intervention. Some will portray this as the moment he went native. At the same time, his arguments are not insignificant and mark the first time he has pushed back in such a public way. He has lived through a major programme of reform during his career in the PSNI and is not a product of Garda culture.
Harris sees the Bill as an effort to establish Gsoc as an enhanced entity to impose a new culture on the Garda. In policing, he claims, that can only come about internally and he believes it is well under way within the Garda. Gsoc’s enhanced powers – in his view – would see the Garda outsourcing all internal discipline to the complaints body, thus fostering a negative policing culture.
In opposing key elements of proposed legislative change in such a public manner, a commissioner with a reputation for considerable political nous has placed himself in an unusual position. He has also demonstrated that Garda reform remains as divisive as ever.