Garda Ombudsman - Annual Report.

Turner

Very good news for the Gardai with most complaints "low-level, like abuse of authority, neglect of duty and discourtesy"

Nice to see somebody being prosecuted for making a false complaint too.


From Breakingnews.ie http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/nine-gardai-prosecuted-in-year-412732.html

Nine Garda officers were prosecuted last year for offences including assault, perverting the course of justice and false imprisonment, it was revealed today.

At least four of the serving members were suspended from the force over their alleged crimes while a number of court proceedings are still pending.

The Garda Ombudsman, launching its annual report for 2008, said it sent 31 files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as part of its investigations during the year.

The DPP, in turn, sent 11 individuals identified in the cases forward to be prosecuted, one of whom was a Garda officer who was convicted for dangerous driving.

Another was a civilian, living in the north east, who is currently before the courts on charges of providing false and misleading information to the Ombudsman.

The remaining nine were all rank-and-file Garda officers, based in divisions around the State, including in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The Garda Ombudsman said they were facing prosecution over assault, assault causing harm, perversion of the course of justice, forcible entry and false imprisonment.

The annual report also revealed:
:: The Garda Ombudsman received 4,227 complaints last year but 1,360 of these were deemed inadmissible.
:: About 80% of complaints were against rank-and-file Garda officers, with 14% against sergeants.
:: Dublin West, Dublin North and Dublin South Central had the highest number of complaints along with Louth/Meath and Waterford/Kilkenny.

However, it was stressed that the high number in Waterford/Kilkenny was effectively down to one or two people who are serial complainants.

Those multiple allegations in the south east led the Ombudsman to introduce a new policy that will remove such complainants from the statistics in future.

Garda Ombudsman Commissioner Conor Brady said most of the complaints against the force were low-level, like abuse of authority, neglect of duty and discourtesy.

But they were also dealing with some very serious allegations including assault charges, he added.

“We have some quite serious cases we are investigating but by and large the majority of gardaí go about their job decently and honestly,” he said.

The number of complaints is slightly up on the previous year but 2008 was the first full year the Garda Ombudsman was in operation, so they are not strictly comparable.

Mr Brady also pointed out that the scale of complaints against Garda officers is lower than experienced by their counterparts in the North and Britain.

In so-called section 102 referrals to the Ombudsman, where the conduct of a garda may have contributed to the death or serious harm of a person, cases were down from 245 over the nine months in 2007 to 129 last year.

While more than half were thrown out by the Ombudsman, some 82 cases remained under investigation at the end of the year.

Among these cases, 13 related to deaths, of which eight were as a result of road traffic incidents.
Dublin North Central, Dublin South Central, Louth/Meath and Limerick recorded the highest number of section 102 referrals.

The Garda Ombudsman noted there were two incidents where Taser stun guns were reported used by the force last year, in one case resulting in minor injury.

In both cases there was no Garda misbehaviour, it was found.

Ombudsman chairman Dermot Gallagher said there was generally widespread support and respect for the Garda but stressed the importance of an impartial body to hear complaints and allegations.

Mr Brady said the Garda Ombudsman’s role was not solely to prosecute offending officers but it had a preventative role and was there to improve accountability within the force.

The former newspaper editor added that relations were now generally very good between the Ombudsman and the force compared to the early days when it was set up in 2007.

brayblue24

I welcome this report. I was always in favour of an external body to investigate alleged wrongdoings in the force. As long as we were investigating ourselves we were at nothing. If someone was found guilty of something before it was considered from within as a hatchet job by a kangaroo court. If the same person was found not guilty the media said it was it was a "cover up". We couldn't win.

Also, it was always very easy for AGS to say that corruption is not rife within but to hear what we all knew anyway said in an official report from an independent body carries the weight it deserves. So to all those who considered that we were all lazy, good for nothings on the take, have a slice of humble pie and to all my colleagues well done, it's nothing more than the vindication the vast majority of us-and our families- deserve to hear.

Hooch

brayblue24 wrote: »

I welcome this report. I was always in favour of an external body to investigate alleged wrongdoings in the force. As long as we were investigating ourselves we were at nothing. If someone was found guilty of something before it was considered from within as a hatchet job by a kangaroo court. If the same person was found not guilty the media said it was it was a "cover up". We couldn't win.

Also, it was always very easy for AGS to say that corruption is not rife within but to hear what we all knew anyway said in an official report from an independent body carries the weight it deserves. So to all those who considered that we were all lazy, good for nothings on the take, have a slice of humble pie and to all my colleagues well done, it's nothing more than the vindication the vast majority of us deserve to hear.

Well said

McCrack

Lads I've had a quick scan of this report and the statistics are not good.

Just to put it in perspective...

3,000 odd complaints were made to the Ombudsman in 2008 which were deemed admissable. The vast majority of these were against members of Garda and some Sergeant rank of which there are about 13,000 serving altogether.

This means for every 4 members there averages 1 admissable complaint against them.

And to further analyse this, 80% were against Garda rank of which there are about 11,000 and I'll also say of the 13,000 mentioned how many are not actually operational Gardai ie not actually out and about dealing with the public on a day to day basis?

Finally this is not an personal attack on anybody and I dont for a second think that any of the Gardai that post on this forum and elsewhere are part of these statistics but I have to highlight this nevertheless.

cushtac

McCrack wrote: »

3,000 odd complaints were made to the Ombudsman in 2008 which were deemed admissable.

The admissibility of a complaint does not mean that the complaint has been upheld, it only means the complaint is worth investigating.

Gardaí are entitled to the same presumption of innocence as everyone else.

McCrack

McCrack wrote: »

Lads I've had a quick scan of this report and the statistics are not good.

Just to put it in perspective...

3,000 odd complaints were made to the Ombudsman in 2008 which were deemed admissible. The vast majority of these were against members of Garda and some Sergeant rank of which there are about 13,000 serving altogether.

This means for every 4 members there averages 1 admissible complaint against them.

And to further analyse this, 80% were against Garda rank of which there are about 11,000 and I'll also say of the 13,000 mentioned how many are not actually operational Gardai ie not actually out and about dealing with the public on a day to day basis?

Finally this is not an personal attack on anybody and I dont for a second think that any of the Gardai that post on this forum and elsewhere are part of these statistics but I have to highlight this nevertheless.

While there were 3000 admissible complaints they are not all for criminality. We have been told that most of the complaints relate to "minor" issuses like discourtesy.

I say minor compared to complaints such as assault or similar.

McCrack

cushtac wrote: »

The admissibility of a complaint does not mean that the complaint has been upheld, it only means the complaint is worth investigating.

Gardaí are entitled to the same presumption of innocence as everyone else.

I agree and accept re the presumption of innocence and I never suggested to the contrary.

The GSOC deemed 3,000 of the 4,000 odd complaints admissible for investigation at various levels so that would indicate the complaints were at least sustainable and not without smoke very similar to when a file is sent to the DPP and he gives the nod to prosecute.

To keep with the DPP anology about 80% of of crimes heard on indictment (where the DPP gives the nod) result in conviction whether on plea or the accused being found guilty by a jury.

cushtac

McCrack wrote: »

The GSOC deemed 3,000 of the 4,000 odd complaints admissible for investigation at various levels so that would indicate the complaints were at least sustainable and not without smoke very similar to when a file is sent to the DPP and he gives the nod to prosecute. To keep with the DPP anology about 80% of of crimes heard on indictment (where the DPP gives the nod) result in conviction whether on plea or the accused being found guilty by a jury.

The analogy is incorrect since this situation is not similar to the DPP 'giving the nod'. Any file sent to the DPP has already been investigated, this is not necessarily the situation with the 3,000 admissible cases. Therefore you cannot apply the 80% conviction rate to complaints, and it is very unfair to do so.

Our man in Havana

What does the ombudsman mean by "discourtesy"?

Bond-007

Bond-007 wrote: »

What does the ombudsman mean by "discourtesy"?

Being dealt with in a discourtious way. You come into the station to get your passport stamped and the Garda on duty is rude towards you.

You don't feel that your complaint/query was dealt with in an appropriate manner.

Bascially the same things that you would complain about in a shop / business.

Our man in Havana

Do those sort of complaints get upheld?

Bond-007

Bond-007 wrote: »

Do those sort of complaints get upheld?

They do. Thankfully I haven't been on the receiving end of one. Apparently a lot of this type of complaint is made against newer members. They make a point of telling you all the time down in the College.

cushtac

Bond-007 wrote: »

Do those sort of complaints get upheld?

Some do & some don't. A lot can & are resolved through a kind of mediation process where both parties meet and discuss the incident with the opportunity to apologise.

bravestar

foreign wrote: »

They do. Thankfully I haven't been on the receiving end of one. Apparently a lot of this type of complaint is made against newer members. They make a point of telling you all the time down in the College.

Yeah thats what they say but I dont see that. The newest members are generally the most over polite and will go to great lengths to investigate the fact that you only got 42 tic tacs in your packet rather than the average 45

Re: GSOC and 3000 complaints. People will always complain. If your doing your job correctly then people will complain about you. As long as in your heart you know you did nothing wrong then why worry about it.

Our man in Havana

Indeed. I have on occasion went into a station with a form that needed signing etc and have found the member on duty to be a little grumpy. Why would anyone complain about that? People can have bad or off days. You guys do a diffcult job and people should take that into account.

Keep up the good work.

TheNog

The number of complaints are actually not too bad considering that a single guard on duty could come into contact somewhere in the region of 20 people per shift so

20 - members of the public
x 28 - days worked in a rostered month
x 12 - months in the year
x 15000 - (estimated ) Garda members
= ______
100,800,000 - estimated number of annual contacts with the general public for the entire force

Of course there is room for improvement in the number of complaints and this is the first full year report so a benchmark has been set. Next years report will be the one to watch for any increase or decrease in complaints