OPINION:Getting policing right in the modern world is a multi-faceted process. A latter-day 'Lugs' Brannigan would be no help at all
IN HIS recent address at NUI Maynooth, Mr Justice Paul Carney (The Irish Times, January 29th last) set out the factors, as he sees them, which go to fostering high standards of police conduct. He spoke of the positive changes he has witnessed in the Garda Síochána over his decades as a barrister and judge.
He said that “from a situation in my early days where there was an attack on Garda behaviour in virtually every case”, Garda conduct was now virtually never criticised in court.
He spoke of the role of video-recording in reducing allegations of ill-treatment during questioning. But there is more to the change than video cameras, he added. “I think it may be that a fundamental decency which has always been there has reasserted itself in the guards.” He noted that modern policing does not aim simply for the “extraction of a confession” but at the application of forensic sciences “which may equally point in the direction of innocence as guilt”.
From a judge so experienced in criminal law and trial procedure, these are words of considerable praise – and the Garda is entitled to feel affirmed by them. But there are dangers in any analysis of contemporary police behaviour that is grounded in a “that was then, this is now” approach. Neither the advent of video-recording nor the development of forensic science will ensure good behaviour across the wide spectrum of activity that is modern police work. And it would be ingenuous to believe that a reassertion of “fundamental decencies” can guarantee no repeat of the aberrations that yielded previous problems like the “Heavy Gang” in the 1970s.
Judge Carney identified some of the elements that make for high standards in police behaviour, but not them all.
Studies of law-enforcement agencies around the world show that police misbehaviour tends to be cyclical. Periods of reform are followed by episodes of misconduct. Purges of errant personnel tend to be followed by periods of high probity. These, in turn, may be followed by further laxities. This pattern may be observed in some of the most high-profile police organisations in the English-speaking world – for example, in the London Metropolitan Police, the New York Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and a number of the police forces of Canada and Australia.
The history of the Garda Síochána bears out this pattern. The 1990s saw the scandals of the Donegal Division. The 1980s saw the illegal use of Garda phone taps and recording equipment to spy on journalists and elected representatives for political purposes. The 1970s was the era of the “Heavy Gang” and the fingerprints scandal in the technical bureau. The 1960s saw a sequence of suspicious deaths in Garda custody. And so it goes, right back to the 1920s.
In each case, inquiries followed. Disciplinary measures were taken. There were resignations and, in some cases, dismissals. Safeguards were put in place. Ministers gave assurances there would be no repeat.
Since the Donegal revelations of the 1990s and publication of the Morris reports, the Garda has enjoyed a period of high standards and a strong commitment to reforming principles. Commissioners of probity and character have done much to professionalise the force. Taxpayers’ money has been well spent in providing excellent training and career development for personnel at all ranks. But it would be myopic to take the view that there will never again be the potential for a scandal.
Police agencies, by definition, operate along the fault lines of society, and these are rarely constant. Police personnel are exposed to stresses and pressures that are unique. They also have powers, privileges and immunities that are unique. Things can go wrong.
Video-recording of interviews is an important element in the suite of preventive measures. Advances in forensics, especially in regard to DNA, can offer near certainty of innocence or guilt to the criminal justice system in many circumstances.
The introduction of independent policing oversight in the form of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, and the establishment of a whistleblowers’ charter are measures aimed at ensuring that if things start going wrong, they will be detected and checked before they can become embedded.
Training at all levels – including repeat or in-service training – is crucial. Most important of all is the implanting within the Garda’s organisational culture of a conviction that high standards and a consistent respect for human rights must be at the heart of police work. The organisation must be seen to reward and to acknowledge such values in the work of its officers.
It is worth noting that in the United Kingdom, no police manager will now be considered for promotion beyond the rank of chief superintendent unless he or she has served for at least three years in “Professional Standards” – what is more popularly referred to as “internal affairs”.
Maintaining police standards and guaranteeing police behaviour is a multi-stranded process. Picking the right people for induction in the first place is fundamental.
We are fortunate that so many young men and women approach a career in the Garda with a sense of vocation and idealism, and that the sense of “fundamental decency” that Judge Carney refers to is still present.
Somewhat paradoxically, elsewhere in his address, Judge Carney went on to describe nostalgically the modus operandi of the late Detective Sergeant JC “Lugs” Brannigan, referring to his “trademark” black gloves and the knuckleduster he carried “for protection”.
Jim Brannigan was “given his head” to deal with street crime, Judge Carney recalled. Were his unit “continued rather than disbanded on his retirement, I suspect that the streets of Dublin would be considerably safer than they are now”, he told his audience. And he added, “nowadays in more politically correct times he would probably be abolished by the Garda Ombudsman”.
There is something of a contradiction between the acknowledgment of today’s high standards in the Garda Síochána and the evocation of an era in which it was widely accepted that the gratuitous or liberal use of physical force was acceptable behaviour by teachers, priests, gardaí and indeed parents.
In the past, many towns and villages had gardaí of the Jim Brannigan school, although nobody else ever attained his celebrity.
They pretty well reflected society’s norms of the time. By and large they were humane, decent men who saw it as their mission to “patrol the streets and enforce the Ten Commandments”.
Society has since moved on. And good policing worldwide has moved on too.
Conor Brady is one of three commissioners of the Garda Ombudsman. He was editor of The Irish Times from 1986 until 2002