Complaints over gardaí have soared

LATEST GSOC FIGURES SHOW NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS DOUBLED IN KERRY

THE number of complaints about gardaí in Kerry more than doubled last year according to the latest figures from the Garda ombudsman.

In its annual report for 2017, the Garda Síóochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) said that it had received 158 complaints about gardaí stationed in Kerry last year.

This represents an increase of 92 on 2016, when there were 66 complaints made to GSOC in relation to gardaí in the Kerry Division.

Nationally 1,949 complaints were received, up ten percent on the previous year. 586 complaints were found to be “completely inadmissible”, while 1,330 were investigated.

Outside the Dublin Metropolitan Region, Limerick and Cork City respectively were the divisions with the highest number of allegations made against gardaí in 2017.

While the report does not contain a complete breakdown of the figures for each Garda Division, the most common matters complained of were abuse of authority, neglect of duty, discourtesy, and non-fatal offences (allegations of a criminal offence listed in the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997; for example assault, harassment or false imprisonment).

The majority of those who complained were male (66 per cent), Irish (79 per cent), under-50 (70 per cent) and caucasian (83 per cent).

Most complaints involved rank and file gardaí (82 per cent) and Sergeants (13 per cent), with 82 per cent of all complaints received involving male gardaí.