Sir, - I am totally opposed to the new "Garda Inspectorate" being set up by the Minister for Justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, to investigate complaints against the force (The Irish Times, October 19th).
It will be headed by a judge or former judge and may employ ex-garda∅ as complaints investigators but, basically, it will be fully independent of the force itself. Such a procedure is sound in theory but, in practice it will be disastrous.
I retired from Scotland Yard in 1973. During my six years as a senior officer I investigated between 400 and 500 such complaints, ranging from simple abuse at street level to assaults, the "planting" of evidence and other serious criminal misconduct. This experience has taught me one thing very positively: no "outsider" (civilian) will ever get the co-operation from serving officers that is essential if complaints are to be satisfactorily investigated.
A serving senior officer alone will get that and then only because of who he is, what he is, what he knows, what direct and indirect pressure he can bring to bear, and the very potent fact that no one can foretell what the future may hold.
The question that exercises the mind of almost every offending policeman is: could the officer I am now being unco-operative with be my commanding officer one of these days?
No civilian will ever enjoy such a level of unspoken influence. In fact, outside investigators will be confronted by a "wall of silence" as policemen, who have the same rights under the laws of evidence as everyone else and understand them better than most, close ranks to face the common enemy - John Doe.
This new Irish system was tried in Britain but wisely discarded in favour of the current system, by which all investigations are carried out by serving senior officers under the supervision of a suitably qualified and specially chosen member of an independent complaints advisory committee. It has been operating satisfactorily now for some years.
I have in my possession quite a number of complaints files, one of which relates to a fire in a police station and I can say, without fear of contradiction, that it is "imprecise" from beginning to end except for the date and the station heading. It got a lot of people out of serious trouble. It couldn't happen under the current system.
I would strongly advise Mr O'Donoghue to reconsider his decision. - Yours, etc.,
W.G.A. Scott, Friars Hill, Wicklow.