KEY FINDINGS:ALMOST 3,000 complaints have been received by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) since it became operational almost a year ago, according to its chairman, Mr Justice Kevin Haugh.
More than 750 investigations into allegations of criminal conduct are ongoing.
Nine files have been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, including one which makes it an offence to knowingly provide the GSOC with false or misleading information in relation to a complaint or an investigation, he said.
The GSOC also released the results of an Ipsos Mori survey which showed that one in 20 members of the public has had a reason to complain about a garda.
Of these, 71 per cent said they would be willing to make a complaint, while 25 per cent said they would not, either because they thought it would make matters worse, or because they believed nothing would be done.
Asked for their views of the commission, 83 per cent believed it was independent, 50 per cent believed it was effective and 48 per cent believed it was efficient.
Most people believed it would have a positive impact on people's willingness to complain and on the Garda's response to complaints.
Under Section 102 of the Act, the Garda Commissioner must refer any incident involving the death of a person to the GSOC, and 17 such referrals had been received. Of these, 11 related to traffic incidents and six involved deaths in or following Garda custody or contact.
Carmel Foley, one of the commissioners, said such deaths may have happened anyway and could be related to drugs or underlying illness, but the commission was obliged to investigate them.
The majority of the complainants were male, and the most common age category was 18 to 30.
Non-Irish nationals made up 17 per cent of the complainants, which contrasts with census data showing they comprise about 10 per cent of the population.
The most common complaint was abuse of authority (47 per cent) followed by discourtesy (26 per cent). Male members of the force made up 84 per cent of those complained against, while they comprise 80 per cent of the force as a whole.
Dublin, the Louth/Meath area and Mayo were the sources of the highest number of complaints. The high number from Mayo was due to complaints arising out of the policing of the Corrib gas pipeline protests, Ms Foley said.
One of the functions of the commission includes examining the practices, policies and procedures of the Garda in relation to specific matters, and it wrote to the Minister for Justice concerning the possible examination of two areas.
One concerned the management of crowd protests and civil disobedience, prompted by the volume of complaints from Mayo.
The report said the Minister "did not feel that it was appropriate at that time for him to request such an examination".
The other area concerned the fixed charge processing system, and also followed a high volume of complaints. This examination is under way.