Profile: Her friendly demeanour hides a tough core and a passion for justice, which should serve Kathleen O'Toole well when she polices our 12,000 gardaí, writes Deaglán de Bréadún.
She's been called "The Nun with the Gun" but she rarely carries one. She's a tough American cop but, off-duty, likes to sing karaoke numbers. She's currently policing crime in Boston but soon she'll be policing the police in Ireland.
She's Kathleen M O'Toole, who has been Boston's police commissioner for the past two years. At next Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell will ask his fellow ministers to ratify her appointment as Chief Inspector in the new, independent Garda Síochána Inspectorate.
Pause for management-speak interlude. "The objective of the Inspectorate," we are told, "is to ensure that the resources available to the Garda Síochána are used optimally so as to achieve and maintain the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness in its operation and administration, as measured by best standards of comparable police services."
That's what the advertisement in The Irish Times last December said, but it's not the way the US media put it. Reporting on O'Toole's impending move, Associated Press wrote that she would be overseeing Ireland's "struggling" police force, adding that "the lightly-armed Garda Síochána suffers from major shortcomings".
The appointment is for three years, on a renewable basis, and she will have two deputy inspectors and a headquarters at 87 St Stephen's Green, close to the Department of Justice.
The Inspectorate will conduct, "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 Síochana". The Inspectorate will also advise the Minister "on best policing practice generally". In simple language this should mean, in part, "No more Donegals". The litany of misdeeds and malpractice that have come to light in the Morris Tribunal shows that the force needs a major shake-up, with a new and more stringent approach to indiscipline as well as greater willingness to learn from and adopt the best features of policing in other countries and jurisdictions.
IT'S A TALL order that will require special qualities, not to mention full support from the government of the day as well as senior people in the Department of Justice and the Garda force itself. Is O'Toole up to the job? She has already covered somewhat similar ground in Northern Ireland with her membership of the Patten Commission, where O'Toole generally made a good impression on the people who had dealings with her.
Back in Boston, Stephen Murphy, a city councillor who is strong on law-and-order issues, admits they have had "a few professional disagreements", but his overall assessment is favourable.
"I have known Kathy for over 22 years," he told The Irish Times this week.
"I absolutely think she is a good choice for the job of Inspector of police. She brings a wealth of knowledge to that position. She is smart, open-minded and willing to listen."
As for her approach in the new post, he says: "She will be a disciplinarian when she needs to, with the understanding that the job is tough. She will be fair and balanced in her new role."
Boston has a long history of racial tensions and the black community and others have not always seen eye-to-eye with the police force. But O'Toole scores highly for her efforts to improve relations with the various ethnic groups. African-American Cllr Charles Yancey says: "I found her to be very professional and she made many, many efforts to reach out to the diverse communities in the city." He welcomes the fact that, unlike previous police chiefs, O'Toole supported the idea of a civilian review board. As Yancey put it, this would "give the public an opportunity to complain about the behaviour of police officers - otherwise we are asking the police to police themselves". But he added that it was "unfortunate she didn't get the support necessary for reforms from the Mayor".
O'Toole's somewhat chequered relationship with the office of Boston Mayor Thomas M Menino is a constant theme in commentaries and assessments on her tenure as head of the city's police force. Cllr Charles Turner says that "From the outside, it seemed as if there was friction between City Hall people who worked for the mayor and her leadership of the police department. There's a general sense that there was an attempt by City Hall to micro-manage the department." He adds that the police department was "antiquated in some of its practices".
Turner says O'Toole would be very zealous in her approach to her new role: "She's a woman who really believes in justice. She has strong moral fibre and really does take the issue of injustice very seriously. If allowed to do the job, I think she would do a very effective one." But he cautions that "You have to have the support of others in the system."
THIS WEEK, HOWEVER, Boston Herald commentator Julie Mehegan noted that O'Toole had not stayed long in her "dream job" as police commissioner.
"The city saw its highest murder rate in a decade last year. There have been 21 murders so far in 2006," wrote Mehegan. "The woman has a talent for knowing when to leave."
Her father was a maths teacher and her mother a clerical administrator but O'Toole's career path took shape under the influence of her policeman grandfather, a colourful character and one of the first US cops to ride a motorcycle on duty. During her student years at Boston College she also worked in an Italian restaurant, where one of the regulars was police officer Dan O'Toole whom she married in 1982. He became a police detective and is now retired.
In 1979 she became a cop on the beat in downtown Boston but was laid off temporarily due to a wave of tax cuts in 1981. She filled in the time working as a "decoy" on public transport: hoodlums would try to rob her and then discover, very quickly, that they had made a bad career move.
Back in the police force, she rose quickly through the ranks. In the process she passed the bar exam at New England School of Law. Her sober attire and earnest demeanour earned her the soubriquet, "The Nun with the Gun", but she didn't allow any considerations of gender to prevent her from getting to the very top in a largely male environment. Her ability and enthusiasm brought her to the attention of William J Bratton, who later became police chief in Los Angeles, and who adopted her as one of his proteges. She served as Lieut Col with the Massachusetts State Police from 1992 to 1994 and was appointed to the position of Secretary at the Executive Office of Public Safety in Massachusetts, in the cabinet of Governor Weld, in 1994 and served in this position until 1998. She was appointed Police Commissioner of Boston in 2004, the first woman to hold the job.
Like many in Boston, she feels a close affinity with Ireland. Her daughter Meghan (pronounced "Megan") attended Trinity College Dublin before going on to take film studies at NUI Galway.
When O'Toole was appointed to the Patten Commission on police reform in Northern Ireland, there were some initial reservations on the part of senior figures in the Irish-American community, not to mention wariness among elements of the Protestant community in the North who had an inbred suspicion of Irish Catholics from Boston. But she quickly made her mark.
DESPITE HER FRIENDLY disposition, she is not a pushover and observers say she will hold her own in bureaucratic battles. The key question is, What will she do if she finally runs up against a brick wall in her efforts at Garda reform? There are many problems and considerable discontent, both within the force and among the general public. The pay for the post is good - "in the region of €115,000 per annum" - although it is less than the $160,000 (€124,044) she is reportedly getting at the moment.
Instead of 2,000-plus Boston cops she will be monitoring 12,000 members of the Garda. She will be going from a big-city culture to an increasingly-urbanised society with a strong rural backdrop.
At times her job could be more difficult than the famously tricky task of "minding mice at the crossroads", but probing the police culture of Northern Ireland was a good dry run for that.
In a press conference last week she described it as "a phenomenal opportunity". Initially hesitant, she was persuaded by her daughter and her husband to "take a second look" at it.
For O'Toole, this could be her greatest challenge yet.
The O'Toole File
Who is she? Kathleen M O'Toole, currently head of the Boston police
Why is she in the news? As of July 1st, she will have a new job in Ireland, monitoring the behaviour of the Garda Siochána
Most appealing characteristic: Outgoing and friendly personality
Least appealing characteristic: When off-duty, likes to sing Build me up, Buttercup on karaoke.
Most likely to say: "There's gonna be some changes made."
Least likely to say: "Oh, that's all right, guard, I know you slapped the guy around a bit but nobody's perfect."