A police Ombudsman is needed to handle complaints about the Garda, the head of the Irish Human Rights Commission has said. Dr Maurice Manning said the commission welcomed proposals for a fully independent three-person Garda inspectorate made by the Minister for Justice, but did not believe he had gone far enough.
A Human Rights Commission document details how a Police Ombudsman would operate, with the same legal powers of arrest as a member of the Garda and an independent right to conduct an investigation without a formal complaint. The commission also wants full protection of the due process rights of gardaí charged with inappropriate or potentially criminal behaviour and a reformed Complaints Tribunal which would process complaints referred to it after an investigation by the Ombudsman."The public has a right to expect that if complaints are made against the police they will be investigated independently, not by internal inquiry, that they will be investigated fairly, openly, efficiently, with sensitivity and with due process, and in such a way that the public have full confidence in the outcome."
Gardaí were equally entitled to a system which enjoys public confidence and within which members could be protected from "malicious, mendacious allegations which can so easily be made against them and are made against them". Commission member, Mr Michael Farrell, said it was clear that there is a problem of police accountability, with two judicial inquiries - the Morris tribunal in Donegal and the inquiry into the fatal shooting of Mr John McCarthy in Abbeylara, Co Longford in 2000 - which is about to begin.