'Allow garda informants engage in crime' while undercover, says Garda Inspectorate report
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Laws should be changed to allow criminal informants for gardaí to engage in crime as a tactic to tackle gangs, the Garda Inspectorate has said.
The official body also said laws are needed to allow gardaí themselves to engage in undercover work inside gangs, as happens in many other countries.
It also wants garda management to be given the legal power to run anti-corruption probes — including random checks — against public officials to see if they are being corrupted by organised crime gangs.
Echoing calls from oversight judges over the years, the inspectorate urged the Department of Justice to "expedite" laws to give gardaí the power to access open and encrypted communications used by gangs.
It said that despite the considerable success of gardaí in targeting high-profile crime groups and seizing large volumes of drugs and criminal assets, the disruption is often temporary and “does not address harmful effects on individuals and communities”.
The 360-page report is critical of the lack of garda threat assessments and calls for a whole raft of strategies on organised crime, crime reduction, and victims, and new agencies, including on youth justice and a youth organised crime service.
The report is also critical at delays, spanning 12 years, in developing a National Criminal Intelligence Framework and calls for it to be introduced as a “matter of urgency”.
The report said Irish legislation does not enable or permit authorisation of any covert human intelligence source (CHIS) to participate in criminal activity.
It recommended that the Department of Justice introduce legislation to allow CHIS to participate in crime, adding that laws would provide the necessary appropriate safeguards.
The report said that, currently, the only undercover work gardaí are permitted to do are drug test purchasing (buying off street dealers) and covert surveillance with no formal system for authorising undercover police operations.
The report said “six out of ten people” have experience of drug addiction in Irish communities.
It said high volumes of drugs seized have made “little impact” to the daily lives of many local communities.
In line with previous reports from local areas, the inspectorate said children as young as eight are being groomed into gangs.
It said there has been “a marked increase” in the involvement of young people in drug-related offences and money laundering.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the report reflects some of the major successes of the Gardaí but also highlights "areas for further improvement".