Leaks such as that about TD Clare Daly are an abuse of Garda authority
What happened to United Left Alliance TD Clare Daly after her encounter with the Garda is something that, unfortunately, is neither new nor particularly uncommon.
It goes without saying that the majority of gardaí are utterly professional in their use of official information. Discretion and confidentiality are essential qualities in a police officer, precisely because they have the power to inquire and intervene in people’s daily lives.
But there has been a regrettable pattern down the years of gardaí leaking information to the media when prominent individuals or people whom the gardaí may not like have come to police notice.
This unhappy phenomenon is not encountered when the citizen engages with other regulatory or enforcement agencies. One does not read about it in the newspapers when a public figure has a visit from the Revenue or the television licence inspector. It is a nasty and vindictive practice. It is also an abuse of authority and an offence under schedule seven of the Garda Síochána disciplinary code.
Smear
In circumstances almost identical to Ms Daly’s, the name of a senior official of the State’s prosecution services was leaked to the media as having been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. As in Ms Daly’s case, blood analysis showed the official was under the limit. But the smear had been delivered and the damage done.
In 2006, while then minister for justice Michael McDowell was embroiled in conflict with the Garda over reform proposals, details of an incident involving an assault on his son were passed to the news media.
When a young man died in 2007 after being struck by a car carrying four gardaí from a late-night social function, the victim’s reputation was smeared by an allegation in the Irish Independent that he had a history of drug abuse.
The incident was investigated by officers of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). In the event, the Garda driver was found to be blameless and the deceased man, who had been drinking, was found to have been lying on the road.
When the GSOC examined the Garda Pulse computer it found more than 100 gardaí had swiftly searched it for details of the victim’s criminal past.
One garda confused the deceased man with another of similar name who had a history of drug abuse, and promptly rang a reporter at the Irish Independent to tell him.
That garda was identified and admitted to having been logged on to Pulse when the search was made. However, it was claimed, many gardaí often access Pulse while it is open under another officer’s login.
It will prove difficult for the GSOC to identify the source of the leak about Ms Daly. Information and gossip travel swiftly through the Garda network. Indeed, the argument can be made that this is as it should be.
Effective policing depends on the sharing of knowledge and intelligence. But this does not extend to notifying the newspapers.
Ms Daly’s arrest was justified. She had executed an illegal turn and she had taken some alcohol. One wonders about the justification for handcuffs. Precisely what threat was she considered to pose to the arresting officers?
Whistleblower
She has alleged that her treatment was because of her support in the Dáil for the claims by a garda “whistleblower” that there is widespread abuse of the penalty points system. Those allegations are under investigation by an assistant commissioner while the GSOC keeps a watching brief. Only time may tell if any cause-and-effect can be established here.
But it might be instructive to refer to a report completed by the GSOC four years ago (ignored by the legislators but available on the commission’s website) describing the shambles that is the fixedpenalty system, of which licence penalty points is a subset.
It is not easy to prescribe a remedy for the abuse of authority of the kind highlighted by Ms Daly’s case. It is not solely an Irish problem. Indeed, Garda leaks pale into insignificance compared with what has been revealed of misconduct by members of the London Metropolitan Police in their relations with the Murdoch press.
In the end it must come down to personal standards by gardaí. And where they fall short, there must be a determination by Garda supervisors to clamp down hard on this abuse.
One does not have the sense that this has been pursued with great vigour up to now.
Conor Brady was editor of The Irish Times from 1986 to 2002 and a member of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission from 2005 to 2011.