Boston police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole has been selected as the chief of the Garda Inspectorate, the new independent body which will investigate how the gardaí do their job. The appointment has still to be ratified by the Government but a decision is expected shortly.
The appointment is one of the key elements in a plan by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to introduce sweeping changes to the Garda.
Ms O'Toole (50) is regarded as one of the leading figures in policing in the US, and she is also very familiar with the policing culture in Ireland, having served on the Patten commission which reformed policing in the North.
She comes from a strong Irish-American background and her daughter, Meghan, completed her undergraduate degree at Trinity College in Dublin. Ms O'Toole lives in south Boston with her husband, Dan, a retired policeman.
Political sources in Dublin said yesterday that the decision has not yet come before the Government but The Irish Times confirmed the strong speculation in Boston that Ms O'Toole had been offered the job as chief inspector with the Garda Inspectorate. The job pays in excess of €115,000 a year.
Ms O'Toole began her career in policing almost by accident when, as a student in Boston College, she took the police exams as practice for law school. She ended up joining the city's police department in 1979.
After a rapid rise through the ranks she served as state secretary for public safety from 1994 to 1998 and was asked to join the Patten Commission in 1998 where she was deputy to Chris Patten.
Appointed to the post of police commissioner in Boston in 2002, she was honoured earlier this year with the Pinnacle Award in Boston which recognises the accomplishments of women who have achieved excellence in business or public service. She was recognised for "her extraordinary dedication to the city of Boston and more than 26 years in public safety".
Her decision to take the post as chief of the Garda Inspectorate will give the new body an immediate standing and will reinforce its mandate to change the culture of policing in the Republic.
When the job was advertised late last year it specified that the objective of the inspectorate would be to ensure that the resources available to the Garda Síochána were used so as to achieve and maintain the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness in its operation and administration, as measured by reference to the best standards of comparable police services.
Candidates were required to have experience as a police officer outside the Irish Republic and to have a proven record in decision making, managerial skills and to have excellent interpersonal skills.
The functions of the inspectorate are to "carry out, at the request or with the consent of the minister, inspections or inquiries in relation to any particular aspects of the operation and administration of the Garda Síochána".
It is also obliged to submit reports on inspections or inquiries to the Minister, and if required by the Minister, a report on the operation and administration of the Garda Síochána during a specified period. It is also obliged to make recommendations in its reports and is also to provide advice to the Minister with regard to best policing practice.
The Public Appointments Service engaged Price waterhouseCoopers (PwC) to assist them in a global search of common law jurisdictions to locate suitable candidates for the job. Section 115 of the Garda Síochána Act, specified that the inspectorate should consist of a chief inspector and two deputy inspectors. It was specified that one of the three should be a woman. The two deputy positions have been advertised in recent weeks.