Watchdog raises concerns on Garda capacity to tackle corruption

The Garda Síochána Inspectorate has raised serious concerns about the force’s ability to deal with the threat of corruption by members of the force, including potential abuse of power for sexual gain.

The watchdog’s report examining the risk of internal corruption in the force highlights a number of weaknesses in the organisation’s procedures for handling instances of corruption involving its members.

Guidance relating to professional conduct among members contain “significant gaps” in relation to the abuse of power for sexual gain, inappropriate relationships, conflicts of interest, associations with journalists and drug use.

Internal corruption and the abuse of power for sexual gain is an “emerging corruption issue” for police services worldwide, the report states. However, in the Garda there was “no clear understanding” of common behavioural characteristics or indicators of activities relating to the abuse of power for sexual gain. Neither was there any awareness-raising of the issue among leaders in the workforce.

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The risk to the Garda of abuse by members for sexual gain was “poorly grasped” and cases were dealt with in isolation, the report states. To address the oversight, the organisation should develop and implement detailed guidelines and policies and should raise awareness of the issue inside and outside the force.

Weaknesses were also identified in the process of vetting recruits. It found criminal-record checks for prospective members were confined to Garda prosecutions and convictions on the Pulse system, with limited international checks. The organisation should also develop a comprehensive vetting approach that checks for foreign convictions and examines an applicant’s financial, social media, and prior employment records, the report recommends.

The Garda has been the subject of scandals regarding individual and systemic failures, including instances of corruption, the report notes. The threat of corruption “comes from those within the Garda workforce, as well as from groups and individuals outside the organisation, such as organised crime groups seeking to corrupt susceptible individuals”.

The Countering the Threat of Internal Corruption review found there is “no common understanding” among justice agencies of the threat posed by internal corruption in the Garda and that co-operation between these agencies is often unco-ordinated, with no formal process in place to share information.

It recommends the Department of Justice develop an “overarching counter-corruption strategy” and that the Garda must develop intelligence and information-sharing protocols around corruption to keep informed the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and other relevant agencies.

The Garda must do “more than simply react to instances of corruption as they occur”, wrote Chief Insp Mark Toland at the inspectoratein the report.

“It was concerning to find that many members of the Garda workforce continue to have significant reservations about speaking up and reporting wrongdoing,” he said. However, he welcomed the Garda’s intention to create systems for anonymous reporting which “should help to encourage people to report unethical and corrupt behaviour”.

An Garda Síochána must assign sufficient resources to this unit to create dedicated intelligence and investigation teams. The inspectorate also called for drug and alcohol testing for gardaí and for the Garda’s policy on gifts, hospitality and sponsorship to be better implemented so it is properly understood by members.

For the sake of transparency, the Garda should follow the lead of UK police services in publishing on its website the outcomes of disciplinary and misconduct procedures, criminal investigations and substance tests for members of the force, the inspectorate recommends.

Reacting to the report’s publication, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said she is “particularly focused” on addressing weaknesses identified in relation to abuse of power for sexual gain.

“This type of behaviour . . . cannot be tolerated in our police service,” she said. The Minister said she has asked her officials to consider and progress the report’s recommendations and to produce a detailed response and implementation plan.

Ms McEntee said the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Unit has been a priority for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and it will play a “significant role in implementing the inspectorate’s recommendations”.

The force welcomed the “useful and informative” report and noted that some of the inspectorate’s recommendations will require investment in technological infrastructure and legislative change.

The commissioner said the integrity of the organisation is “not negotiable” and there is “no room in An Garda Síochána for anyone who engages in corruption”.

Also highlighted in the report, was the internal process for exempting Garda members from incurring fixed-charge penalty notices for road traffic violations. The inspectorate found the application process “lacked detail” and applications were not always subject to robust scrutiny by supervisors.

Why so many prosecution cases?

The legislation underpinning the fixed-charge penalty system provides for a statutory exemption for emergency services personnel, if they are driving or directing a vehicle in the performance of their duties and the vehicle is not a danger to other road users. Garda policy stipulates that the statutory exemption should be relied upon only in exceptional circumstances.

Of the 459 exemption applications from members from August 2018 to August 2019, just one was refused, according to data from the Fixed Charge Penalty Office. Almost half of a sample of 25 applications provided no rationale for exceeding the speed limit, the inspectorate notes.

Garda members have a wide discretion under statute to institute criminal proceedings in the State compared to other benchmarked police forces, the report notes. An examination of a sample of District Court prosecution files by the inspectorate identified “significant gaps” in the supervision and management of the high volume of prosecution cases that were discontinued at court. Discontinued cases included serious threats to public safety, such as driving while intoxicated and public order offences.

There were also “inconsistent charging practices” for the Garda’ policing of non-public duty events, such as sports matches, tourism events, or concerts. The inspectorate found the organisation was charging for policing activities that had not originally been foreseen in the legislative framework and that there was an overreliance on overtime for policing these events.