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A FAILURE BY some gardaí to show understanding towards grieving families has been highlighted in complaints which were examined by a panel of legal experts.
Yesterday, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald published an overview report by the panel of the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which was established to consider allegations of garda misconduct or inadequacies. The team consists of two senior and five junior counsel.
They carried out a review of 320 complaints, and while 249 of these required no further action, the panel noted a significant number would have been averted if there had been adequate communication from gardaí.
Emotional distance
A high proportion of complaints were made by people bereaved by the death of a loved one. The panel said it is a “necessary condition of professional policing” that gardaí keep a certain level of emotional distance from the situations they encounter.
However, this “defence against intrusive reaction to tragedy” has, according to the team of barristers, possibly resulted in a failure to show understanding of the “near-endless anguish” that close family members go through when questioning the last moments and movements of a person’s life.
Gardaí were found to have dealt sensitively with family members in cases where a death occurred through an act of criminal violence like a homicide. It was in cases where there was no immediate threat to security or the community, that communication was lacking, with the shortcomings ranging from “the mildly perfunctory to the highly offensive”.
Those for whom an equally random and avoidable death is in issue, resulting from human error, or in circumstances subject to different interpretations, often have added to their profound grief a form of involuntary self-torture, in which the final actions surrounding their loved one’s death are revisited constantly and made the subject of intense examination, speculation and hunger for clarity.
Insensitivity
Though it was noted that not all of these complaints had substance, failure in communication was most marked in these cases.
In one example, the surviving family members of a person who had died under confused circumstances at a public venue found out details they had not previously known when they saw them in a local newspaper, because a senior garda briefed members of the media.
Understandably, such insensitivity tends to foster resentment and suspicion of garda priorities.
In a number of cases, people who had offered statements outlining alleged crimes against them, were left unaware of whether or not any form of investigation had been undertaken and, if so, whether prosecution was in prospect, for upwards of one year.
The panel also noted that there was “wholly inadequate” communication to surviving family members of the deceased in a number of sensitive cases when inquests were convened.
Conspiracy
The report points out that among a small number of complaints, it was evident that genuine attempts were made by gardaí to provide information, but this resulted in this garda’s name being included in a complaint of what is perceived to be “a conspiracy”.
This was often described as involving many State agencies and the panel said it was a “sad yet compelling observation” that some files reveal an obsessional mind-set in some of the complainants.
In its recommendations, the panel said many of these complaints could have been avoided if policies that are already in place were uniformly observed. Since the drafting of this entry into the IRM review, the proposed heads of a bill have been published, which would give victims of crime greater rights to information.
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To be fair and balanced a team of barristers should investigate lack of empathy on part of judges
They often let criminals off with suspended sentences without reference to the anguish of their victims
The same barristers are the ones who represent the same murders and criminals that cause this in the first place. Barristers defend the criminal and always portray the victim in a negative light or blame them. This causes the family far more emotional stress. If the gardai were to get emptionally involved with every incident and investigation, they would be suffering massive levels of strain, emotional and physical. These cases go on for months and they could have many at the same time. They are supposed to not take sides and just present the evidence. Another quack enquiry putting further pressure on our police
To be fair Cholly Appleseed, barristers also conduct the prosecution of criminal cases and often have to present a very negative view of the defendant/s. It is their job after all, I doubt that they allow themselves to get personally/emotionally involved with either side of cases.
Couldn’t agree more with these two posts. Many victims of crimes have reported how traumatised they are following adversarial court proceedings, in which they have felt on trial themselves – at the hands of these same barristers. Some Gardai have better equipped personalities in dealing/communicating with such issues, but the same can surely be said (and no disrespect at all intended) of many doctors, nurses, priests etc. No matter what the Gardai seem to do nowadays they are wrong!
To be fair john Campbell you could say the exact same thing about the job of the gardai
So kinda like Gardai not getting emotionally involved?
In all fairness, their police at the end of the day…… Not councillors. We expect them to be so much but yet we pay them €23,000 per year???? Comical really
Counsellors
Remind me again which profession stands up in court and puts the victims and their familys through massive hurt and pain again and again in the defense of their “innocent ” clients?
remind me again which profession stands up in court and prosecutes serious offences on behalf of the DPP?
A team of barristers ,well that reflects the real world.
The barristers are the people who interact with the victims after the guards.
No they’re not.
@Neal: Explain how barristers interact with victims after crimes please.
Marty, barristers frequently work with clients who have been injured through crime or through accidents, and also in fatal injury cases (and so on)
@Cosaint Barristers do not interact with victims of crime after the Gardai. That is what he said and it is not correct.
Ivan, I do believe your irony has not been detected by many!
Barristers will very rarely (and neverin fatal injury cases where the victim is dead!) interact with victims. Solicitors will, barristers wont even meet the person until the day of the court
Not without the fat fee upfront.
I would prefer the Guards just do their job and investigate crime, they aren’t social workers. Maybe there be more victim liaison officers who aren’t involved in the bread and butter of Garda work.
This is an utterly stupid report. People react differently to news that a loved one is dead. And to say that there should be a uniform approach is ridiculous. Informing loved ones of a death is a duty Gardai do thousands of times each year. From Auto Accidents, Suicides, OD’s, Work related accidents to Murders. And in each case the family will react differently. Some will even in their grief blame the Gardai. And it must be remembered Gardai are not Grief Councilors. They are not there to share your pain and grief. They try and be as tactful as possible while delivering the bad news but they also have other duties to perform and so don’t have the time to sit and morn with you.
How in the blue hell are barristers qualified to examine empathy or any sort of psychology of interaction? Especially that of a completely different profession?
Joke of a study/report, at least Fitzgerald won’t be short of toilet paper for a week or so.
how in the blue hell are journal commenters qualified to examine a report they have not even read?
The lack of empathy and compassion shown by ministers of Justices and their civil servants over the last 35 years has been inhuman #JusticeForTheStardust48
Typo in the headline says it all about the journal and its level of detail when reporting. Come on folks, how hard can it be!?
“So Show…” yup another ‘so-so’ headline from the Journal…
Isn’t Gardaí supposed to be capitalised? There should also be a full stop at the end of the sentence.
So more Gardai taken off that secondary job known as policing and instead spent in offices and peoples homes trying to do a job they neither trained or applied for?????
Smart policing by our so called experts as usual who will then blame the Gardai when its pointed out that they spend more time at a desk than on patrol!
The Barristers. as one would expect, overlooked the fact that an Inquest File prepared by the Gardaí is the property and responsibility of the Coroner, and the Gardaí cannot release any information therein willy-nilly. The Coroner is responsible for making communications with relatives, etc. He-she is highly-paid for this work- so let them do it and stop shirking the duty. . After all, Coroners constitute and conduct a Coroner’s Court and are obliged to find facts, record them, and to deal with the relatives of the deceased in a professional and humane manner. As most Coroners are doctors or lawyers, one must surmise tey are too busy making money elsewhere to carry out their statutory functions properly, And the Gardaí take the flak for the real culprits.
Will those commenting on this issue please read it correctly, the complaints are not that the gardai didn’t support victims in the initial mourning process, I am very sure that no family would expect or want a garda member to sit and mourn with them, the complaints reviewed , and it seems there are many of this nature, discuss the fact that gardai fail to communicate with families whose loved ones die suddenly because of violence or human error, many of these families, suffering deep anguish, we’re left with no one answering their questions that they had in the aftermath of their loved ones death. The review into these complaints found that communications were so shortcoming, they ranged from mildly perfunctory to highly offensive. Now , because of these families, you will find that things will change, if your loved one, god forbid dies through a violent act and you are left many questions as to what happened, every effort will be made to ensure gardai do their jobs and answer as many as they can for you. What a heartless bunch ye are, it’s not a nice situation for any family to find themselves in, they need all the support they can get and deserve their questions answered where possible.
And for those of you who don’t understand the meaning of the word ” perfunctory ” it means carrying out actions lacking of care, interest or empathy, that’s how these families were treated following the death of a loved one, ye will only know how bad things are , when ye need help some day yerselves.
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