Just a few days ago, on September 3rd, Drew Harris completed his third year as Commissioner of the Garda Síochána. His leadership has seen the force stabilised and steadied after a lengthy period in which one crisis followed another.
While there have been controversial incidents, there have been no systemic scandals or major shortcomings. On the contrary, there have been significant successes in tackling organised crime and subversion. And the force has proven itself remarkably adept, garnering a significant public-relations dividend, in managing the social control issues that have arisen out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before Harris’s appointment – the first non-garda to head the force since 1965 – there were those who were starting to wonder if the Garda Síochána was beyond reform. Some were even hinting at the inevitability of large-scale disbandment.
The establishment of the Commission on the Future of Policing, chaired by Kathleen O’Toole, bought time. Harris’s installation in the depot, along with a small cohort of other senior officers from outside the State, had an immediately sobering effect on disaffected elements across the organisation.
There is much in the draft legislation that Harris, or indeed any future commissioner, could only welcome
But if the politicians thought they could now relax on their oars, with the job done in relation to policing, the commissioner’s broadside on the draft Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, promulgated by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee in April, will oblige them to reconsider.
In his submission to the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Harris says that the Bill, as currently drafted, “falls well short of our shared ambition for a transparent, accountable, trusted and effective policing service for the future”.
He describes the powers to be given to a newly-structured Garda Ombudsman as “draconian” and “disproportionate” while a proposed new Policing and Community Safety Authority risks “encroaching on the operational independence” of the office of Garda Commissioner.
Perhaps most significant of all, he declares, in relation to the proposed new “independent examiner of security legislation”, the Garda Síochána is “resolute in its position” that State security intelligence can never be shared “without the explicit permission” of those who may have provided that intelligence.
There is much in the draft legislation that Harris, or indeed any future commissioner, could only welcome. It proposes to restore to the commissioner the power to appoint his own senior officers through a competitive selection process. At present this power rests with the Policing Authority.
It proposes the establishment of a Garda board which will sit with the commissioner, supporting and advising him in much the same way that a board of directors will relate to a chief executive in the private sector. The Garda board will have the further effect of standing between the commissioner and the Department of Justice – a relationship has been challenging, to say the least, in the past.
Unsurprisingly, however, Harris’s concerns are focused around the traditional fault lines that have generated ambiguity, mistrust and controversy around Irish policing down the years.
There is, in fact, not much wrong with the existing Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission that could not be put right if it were to be given adequate resources
The first of these is security. The Garda Síochána is the only police organisation in the western world that discharges the functions both of a civil police force and a national security agency. There are many conflicting objectives here. And security will inevitably be invoked to camouflage mistakes or wrongdoing.
The second is independent oversight which was resisted tooth and nail even after successive policing scandals had been uncovered by High Court tribunals over the years.
There is, however, a broad and strong political consensus that the recommendations of the O’Toole commission are to form the future basis of policing in this State. The draft Bill holds closely to those recommendations. It is unlikely, therefore, that the proposed legislation will be significantly amended in order to address the commissioner’s concerns.
If he holds to his position in relation to the sharing of intelligence with the proposed examiner of security legislation, once the Bill becomes law, things could turn unpleasant very quickly. And history shows that where a government and a Garda commissioner lock horns it goes badly for the commissioner.
People who hold leadership roles in policing are not, as a genre, usually enthusiastic about independent oversight or supervision. But it is part and parcel of the policing-by-consent model that is now considered desirable in most advanced democracies. And those aspiring to leadership in modern policing know that they have to embrace it.
But it is difficult to see how the terms “draconian” or “disproportionate” can be applied to what is proposed for the restructured Garda Ombudsman. Its powers are to be broadly similar to those exercised by the Independent Office for Police Conduct in Britain or, indeed, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
There is, in fact, not much wrong with the existing Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission that could not be put right if it were to be given adequate resources. The commissioner reflects the views of a great many gardaí who have been stressed beyond measure by its procedural delays and lack of operational resources. But equally, he will be aware that many gardaí have brought obfuscation, evasion and prevarication to an art form in their efforts to frustrate it.
Harris’s appointment expires in 2023. He will be just 58 at that stage, with the potential for further service, whether with the Garda Síochána or elsewhere, if he so wishes. But it will be interesting to see how matters will play out for the 21st commissioner of the Garda Síochána if he finds himself in disagreement with the government on policing policy. That, in the words of the late Séamus Brennan would be, “senior hurling”.
Conor Brady is a former editor of The Irish Times. He was Garda Ombudsman Commissioner 2005-2011 and a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing for a time in 2017