We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
TODAY, IT WAS announced that veteran police officer Kathleen O’Toole will lead the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.
Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald received government agreement to appoint the current Chief of the Seattle Police Department to the role, and made the announcement today.
It is understood that O’Toole is finishing up her position in Seattle before taking up the role as head of the Garda root-and-branch review.
The review will involve a comprehensive examination of all aspects of policing, including all functions currently carried out by An Garda Síochana.
In the Dáil this afternoon, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that O’Toole “is an outstanding person of great experience”. He added that she has a “deep understanding of the situation which applies here in Ireland”.
So, what exactly makes her “uniquely qualified” for the review of An Garda Síochana? Here’s what you need to know about Kathleen O’Toole.
Irish connections
O’Toole comes from Massachusetts, and served as a police officer in Boston in the 1980s.
She later rose to become the first female police commissioner of Boston.
She became a member of the Patten Commission, set up to reform policing in Northern Ireland, which led to the eventual formation of the PSNI.
O’Toole held the position of Chief Inspector of the Garda Inspectorate between 2006 and 2012.
Since 2014, she has held the role of Chief of Police in Seattle.
One event that is believed to have been raised in cabinet today, relates to a court case brought against O’Toole last year by senior officers in the Seattle force.
Last July, a jury found that O’Toole had retaliated against two officers who had been transferred out of a district amid a dispute over the handling of overtime pay, reports the Seattle Times.
The court had heard that she had complained that lucrative overtime pay had been improperly steered to four black officers.
The city’s mayor, however, backed O’Toole, saying that he supported her decisions and acknowledged that she had taken the role of police chief in the midst of racial tensions among the force.
Doubts have also been raised concerning O’Toole’s presence on the interview panel which appointed Nóirín O’Sullivan as garda commissioner in 2014.
In October of that year, the Irish Independent reported that O’Toole was one of four members of that interview panel.
Mick Wallace / TwitterWas Kathleen O'Toole not on the panel that selected Noirin O Sullivan for #Garda Commissioner job in 2014? Conflict of Interest maybe.....? https://t.co/OfWycOjLRM
— Mick Wallace (@wallacemick) May 9, 2017
It is not known if the government is footing the full bill for O’Toole’s relocation costs. A government source said O’Toole is the “ideal candidate” and is “eminently qualified” for the role.
The terms of reference for this review will be finalised by the Tánaiste shortly, and be brought before cabinet for approval.
With reporting from Christina Finn.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Please for the love of god, not another bejaysis review of the Gardaí, we have reports coming out of our arses about the Garda and how to improve them, one literally just released. Have any of these reports ever been acted on? No. Then why are we wasting more money on more reports that no one does anything with. Unreal.
Another insider job. No disrespect to a doubtless fine officer but her previous direct and personal connexions here, and the affable nature of many of them no doubt, (given the longstanding tradition of friendship between Irish and US police forces, sure the one more or less begat the other) should cause her to recuse herself from this role.
Why can we not have an equally distinguished official with no prior connexions as she to this corrupted country? Perhaps someone from the Canadian Police? They too have strong links albeit digging with the other foot. On balance, a better more likely objective prospect anyway,
Who must do the hard things? S/he who can. And is not in some way or other possibly bound by feeling of collegiality and empathy arising from former acquaintance.
@Dave.: ah sure you know we love reviews and commisions
@Dave.: and by a woman that was on the committee that selected Noreen O sulivan, Jezes wept
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: are you serious Daithi? surely they couldn’t be that arrogant.
frightening.
Sounds good to me sure she recommended O’sullivan what could possibly go wrong I feel perfectly safe.
They really can’t get anything right.
If she’s good enough for Enda Kenny what could possibly go wrong?
She left the position of Garda Inspectorate saying she was a toothless dragon. She’s written 3/4 reports with recommendations. They weren’t listened to first time around.
I wonder does she think they will be this time?
I wonder will they be listened to this time?
If she goes as full on as needed the government at the time it’s delivered won’t be happy cause it will cost a fortune.
She obviously heard about the lucrative Irish pensions, no wonder she’s re locating to Ireland lol
Is she the right toole for the job.
There is a corrupt rotten corpulence deep in the body politic of the so called Republic oozing a sickness into every organ and polluting everything that it comes in contact with! It has several strains, greed, avarice, cronyism, nepotism, jobs for the boyos and “what’s in it for me?” The patient is now terminal as a result of the ravages of this disease, it will take more than yet another report to collect dust on the shelf to fix what’s wrong! But not to fear it will get the symbiotic parasites feeding off the corpse through another shift! God Save Ireland, because the current lot are already measuring up the corpse!
@Jarlath Murphy: lol! nail on the head Jarlath.
@Jarlath Murphy: it’s all of a piece Jarlath. All that was sung all that was said in Ireland is a Lie, bred from the contagion of the throng. We get what we elect. And by now there’s little alternative if any we’ve been electing it so long it’s the only flavour in town. And that’s shite, whatever the colour of their shirts and ties. Slave laundries, covered-up raped childher, wee girls dying in grottos with their babes along and unsuccoured, Shannon War and Torture Port; abuse abuse abuse and all the blind eyes turned to all the cowardice inhumanity and rapine it’d make you boke.
Surely her strong links with the gardai would make her eminently unsuitable for the job! Was it completely impossible to find a candidate without a scandal attached for the post?
Sounds like she has the experience for the job alright. Bit of a daft comment re relocation expenses. Of course the star should pay if she is moving county to take up the job. If we want her we have to pay
Christ that photo ,she looks like she means business
@rowan hill: good point. She won’t take any BS
Does the Garda Inspectorate still exist or is it being replaced by this latest governement puppet organisation
All this review will do is to keep the Minister in position until Enda goes as l will be shocked if the new Leader give her back her job There must up to a dozen inquiries going on
The next one will be on the Minister
The most expensive Minister we ever had
People commenting should read background information first.
She was the first inspector but left as her reviews were ignored. She knows the problems but now she has the power to force change whether management like it or not.
The nun with the gun, fought for ags to be a genuine 21st century police force much to rank and files delight but was ignored. Now let’s see the minister and commissioner ignore her
@Karl: I’d love to think she has the power to enforce her recommendations but really? In Ireland? All she’ll get to do is publish yet another report with many of the same findings and recommendations from other previous reports only to find them ignored once again.
@Karl: yes mrs O’Toole. Take a seat over there. He’ll be with you when he’s ready now.
@Gerry Carroll: this time I think so. Its news, it will be reported and not hidden.
Be honest, how many inspectorate reports did you read our even know about? Not a dig at you, just proving a point.
McDowell set up the inspectorate to be toothless. It was never meant to achieve any real change. It was purely to shut up the gra because McDowell really did believe the gardai were fully resourced and by giving them the inspector it became ‘independent’.
What really happened was she came in, saw a force mired in dysfunction, mismanagement, lacking basic resources, undermanned and having no defined role (its been mentioned multiple times by the inspectorate that gardai deal with too much non policing functions) and lacking logical operations (why does uniform response gardai also investigate crimes, prepare files for the DPP and prosecute their own cases in court? Isn’t that for detective’s and solicitors??? Why are they sent out in the middle of a summer day in a high visibility bag?)
Or maybe, just maybe for the first in a long time I believe change might actually come
This is just dispicable.
She was on the interview panel for
o sullivan,
She formerly worked for the Guards.
Enda has a crush on her.
Cronyism alive and well.
I see that Wallace is questioning this already, what a tool he is.
The police is no job for a woman.
Where’s Veronica. How come a woman got probably the most important job to do with crime, corruption and incompetence in this country considering your view on the Irish male syke. Or does this not fit with your anti male hyperbole you choose to comment on
She didn’t last long in the last job.why.
Well at least the 3 women at the top are doing a much better job than the men ever did…..Minister for Justice; Garda commissioner and Attorney
General…..
They’ve only gone and chosen Dylan Moran in drag to lead the review! A controversial choice….
This lady was one of four who recommended and nominated noreen O’Sullivan for the position she is in now, so how can their be honesty and integrity in yet another Useless wast of time investigation. Hell I know four fully qualified 40 year old police veterans with very good honest proven track records running investigations across the globe, who could run a full and honest investigation in to the running of the Garda Force. Problem is they have no Irish ties and they aren’t Irish Oh yeah this government wouldn’t like what they findings would be.
@Paul Bennison: that’s grossly unfair. The ones you know never made a bad recommendation?
What evidence do you have that someone who has been the chief of police in 2 separate forces hasn’t got years of honest service leading large investigations?
FIX
Why can’t we do anything without getting ones from the EU or US to tell us what to do?
She’ll sort ‘em out I’d say , look at the head on her
@Trevor Connolly: yeah ‘magine if she was telling you to get your sums right in school. And the bata still in play under the Law. You’d be quare shitein yourself. If she is the only choice in town I hope she takes a leaf from that book.
The only way to improve the gardai is Pay them what there worth. Wouldn’t it just be amazing if the nurses and gardai say fcuk it were off. Wouldn’t Ireland be in a state of shock and chaos. And there’s nothing our government can do. Pay theses people what their worth or
Great gig, whatever she writes in the report she gets paid, expenses and of course the all important pension, and the government can still ignore the report and add it to all the other reports gathering dust on some basement shelf. Government will still get paid, expenses and the all important pension. Just love official Ireland.
O’Toole by name, Tool by nature!
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say