Policing body ‘not satisfied’ at homicides review delays

Errors in classification of the crimes

THE Policing Authority has issued strongly worded statement criticising Garda management over its handling of the controversy surrounding misclassified homicides.

The issue emerged last year following the classification of 41 domestic homicides. Some of these were incorrectly classified – in a number of cases as non-fatal offences against the person.

The Policing Authority is now asking the force to carry out a review of the incorrectly classified domestic homicide cases to ensure the proper investigation was carried out each time. This is required to ensure that when cases in the higher courts are concluded, the records on the Garda Pulse database for the offences before the courts have been updated with the case outcomes.

According to the statement: ‘A court outcome may require a reclassification within a homicide, for example from murder to manslaughter and this updating is essential to ensure accurate classification.’

The authority had expressed its dissatisfaction on a number of occasions about delays in the Garda clarification of the issue. Frustration: Josephine Feehily In the statement yesterday, it said: ‘The pace at which this issue has been addressed by the Garda Síochána has been frustrating... in particular the delay in getting comprehensive information on the matter.

‘In early April 2017, while it became apparent that there was misclassification of data, the extent was not clear.

‘Indeed the lack of information and certain tensions between different services within the Garda Síochána were publicly played out during the authority’s meeting on April 27 and in the media in the days following that meeting.’

The authority requested a report on the issue from An Garda Síochána early last year and information was supplied to it before the public meeting of the authority in April. However, it’s understood the information was supplied late the night before the meeting – meaning it could not be reviewed.

The authority later said it had concerns about the quality of the information supplied.

Addressing a senior Garda team led by then Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, authority chair Josephine Feehily said: ‘Do you have a thing called a report that has a start and an end that we could have a copy of?’

In its statement yesterday, the

‘The pace has been frustrating’

authority noted the Garda had been asked by it on several occasions to confirm that full homicide investigations were carried out into the domestic killings incorrectly recorded and classified.

Each time, it said the Garda had responded that full investigations had been conducted and that the errors had been resolved.

‘At no time has the Garda Síochána demurred from that position,’ said the authority in its statement yesterday.

The authority said it wanted now to understand and confirm these assurances.

ONCE again we see senior Garda management under fire from the Policing Authority, this time with the criticism directed at the delays in providing an explanation for their mishandling of a number of homicide classifications.

This issue first came to light last April, and yet the Policing Authority still awaits clarification from Garda management in relation to a total of 41 domestic homicides, some of which were incorrectly categorised as non-fatal offences. The gardaí are still failing to provide what the Policing Authority has referred to as ‘comprehensive information on the matter’.

This latest censure follows last year’s stinging criticism over the mishandling and inflation of the breath-test figures.

These issues need to be addressed and clarified immediately, but, as with all such situations, it cannot simply be allowed to end there.

So who precisely was responsible for this latest debacle? Who was the person, or persons, who took the relevant decisions that led to such negligent behaviour within An Garda Síochána, and what has been done to specifically address that?

It is imperative that whoever was responsible is held to account. When such lapses occur in such important policing matters, there must be consequences.

For without proper sanctions, malpractice will never be stamped out.