Suspects’ fingerprints never checked at Dublin Garda station

Gardaí in one of the busiest stations in the country have not been using any form of fingerprinting to confirm the identity of suspects they have arrested.

The lapse has been revealed by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) and came to light after a man was summonsed to appear in court in a case of mistaken identity and lodged a complaint.

When the Garda watchdog raised the issue with Garda Headquarters, recommending fingerprinting be used to confirm the identity of those arrested, it was ignored.

The revelation has emerged in Gsoc’s annual report for last year, with the case relating to Store Street Garda station in Dublin’s north inner city.

Only Pearse Street Garda station in the south inner city deals with a higher volume of reported crime each year.

The commission has also questioned the willingness of the Garda to supply it with the information, case files and evidence it needs to investigate complaints about individual gardaí.

It said new protocols for co-operation between it and the Garda had brought about very significant improvements in compliance.

Continued non-compliance

Requests for information and evidence were now met in 80 per cent of cases within an agreed 30-day limit, though the average timeframe was “quite a long time” at 23 days despite most relating to very basic information.

The continued non-compliance was causing delays across Gsoc’s entire operations at a time when complaints had increased 11 per cent and staffing had been reduced.

The delays meant the protocol agreed could not be relied upon to request urgent and time-sensitive material, such as securing CCTV footage before it was erased. Special efforts, based on contacting individual senior officers, were required for such requests.

News that this aspect of the relationship between the Garda and Gsoc remains difficult will put pressure on Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to insist the Garda responds more quickly. Gsoc said it hoped refinements to the protocols would result in faster response times this year.

Last year the number of complaints against members of the force received by the commission increased by 11 per cent to 2,242 complaints containing 5,124 allegations of Garda misconduct. The most common complaints related to abuse of authority or neglect of duty.

Some 41 per cent of complaints were deemed inadmissible for a variety of reasons including, among others, the complaint being lodged too long after the incident, or the allegation, even if proven, not constituting misbehaviour.

No case to answer

Of the 2,176 cases closed in 2014, no breach of regulations was found in 1,228 cases sent to the Garda for international investigation. The allegation was withdrawn in a further 292 cases and in 251 cases there was found to be no case to answer following a criminal inquiry by Gsoc.

In some 114 cases a breach of discipline was found on investigation, a further 22 cases were informally resolved, and 30 cases were referred to the DPP while seven Garda members retired before inquiries were completed.

In the 10 cases that went before the courts, one Garda member was dealt with under the Probation Act for a public order incident after pleading guilty and was fined €500. Another person was convicted of providing false information to Gsoc but is appealing.

In its annual report the ombudsman also revealed when a juvenile complained they were mistreated by gardaí during a public order incident there were “strong similarities” between the records of the gardaí involved that were later furnished to Gsoc. This “could leave gardaí open to questions about the integrity of a person”, it told the Garda.