Complaint types

The most common categories of allegations within complaints that we receive are:

Abuse of Authority

Excessive use of force, or an instruction to do something which the person making the complaint believes was beyond the garda’s authority to instruct, are the main types of allegation categorised as ‘abuse of authority’.

• Read case no. 2 alleging Abuse of Authority, resolved by unsupervised disciplinary investigation
• Read case no. 7 alleging Abuse of Authority, resolved by disciplinary investigation by GSOC
• Read case no. 12 alleging Abuse of Authority, resolved by unsupervised disciplinary investigation

Neglect of Duty

Allegations that a garda failed to take an action that could have been reasonably expected — such as returning a phone call at one end of the scale, or properly investigating an alleged serious crime at the other end of the scale — would be typical examples of ‘neglect of duty’.

• Read case no. 1 alleging Neglect of Duty, resolved by informal resolution
• Read case no. 3 alleging Neglect of Duty, resolved by supervised disciplinary Investigation
• Read case no. 6 alleging Neglect of Duty, resolved by supervised disciplinary Investigation

Criminal Offences

A typical example is an allegation of assault.

• Read case no. 5 alleging Non-Fatal Offence, resolved by criminal investigation

Discourtesy

Complaints around how a garda spoke to or behaved towards a person.

• Read case no. 4 alleging Discourtesy, resolved by unsupervised disciplinary investigation
• Read case no. 8 alleging Discourtesy, resolved by informal resolution