Reform of the Garda would fail unless an independent policing authority to oversee the force was established, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.
The deputy chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Denis Bradley, told the Joint Committee on Justice that community policing was not achievable "unless there is an oversight to it, which cannot be provided by the police in its own right".
"To use a Kerry phrase, having read the Garda Bill, if you want to get to where you want to go, I would start from here."
The committee was hearing submissions on the Garda Síochána Bill which is currently before the Oireachtas. In particular, the committee was receiving submissions on community policing structures and district policing partnerships.
Mr Bradley said the people of this State were very lucky because they had a police force which was deeply embedded in the community. Both the Garda and politicians would "be doing a great disservice" to the nation if that affinity between the gardaí and the community was lost.
He warned: "Both the community and the police are changing very fast, but the community is changing faster." He said it was vital that oversight of the Garda be provided from the community and that no garda sit on an independent policing authority. In the North, he said, members of the PSNI report to the district policing partnerships and answer to them, but no PSNI members sat on them. He said this ensured a healthy tension between the community and the police. The partnerships were also independent of government.
"No one else walking the streets has as much power as a police constable. That is why we need strong oversight," said Mr Bradley.
He warned of resistance from within the Garda to the devolution of some of its power to local partnerships. "Police forces seldom devolve power if they can avoid it."
He also expressed concern that the language of community policing might be adopted but that little difference would be seen on the ground.
The committee also heard a call for human rights tuition for all trainee gardaí in Templemore. Philip Watt, chief executive of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, expressed concern that there was no specific anti-racism training for immigration gardaí.
"Human rights are not part of the examination process in Templemore. We think trainee gardaí should have to pass an exam in human rights before being allowed to qualify as gardaí." He said there should be human rights education as part of the training programmes when current gardaí were promoted.
"The big challenge for the gardaí is that many new communities don't trust police forces," he said. This may be due to the lack of trust these communities had had in their police in their countries of origin.
"There's a need for a proactive approach from the gardaí to build up trust with new communities, and indeed existing communities such as the Travellers."
