David J. McInerney
Thesis Title: ‘Evaluating the Role of the Ethnic Liaison Officer in Irish Policing’
Supervisor: Dr. Aogan Mulcahy
I propose to carry out research into the role of the Garda Ethnic Liaison Officer (ELO), its impact on police service delivery to minorities in Ireland and the effect this new policing role is having on the Garda organisation itself. I will examine how the creation of the post of ELO may have a positive effect on ‘negative profiling’ attaching to minorities in general from a public and police perspective. The research will also address the effectiveness of ELO’s in the prevention and detection of ‘hate’ and ‘racist crime’ in Ireland.
I hope that the proposed research will help define a clear method of how police management can inform policy to gear the organisation towards professional non-discriminatory policing practices via ELO’s, not just in Ireland but also in other jurisdictions.
Biographical Note:
I joined An Garda Siochana in 1980 and I am currently serving in the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office, Harcourt Square, Dublin 2.
I served with the United Nations as a ‘Human Rights Violations Investigator’ in the Former Yugoslavia in 1992 and again in Mozambique in 1994. I was seconded to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva in 1998 where I was deployed to Bosnia/Herzegovina as a Police Consultant on Human Rights and Anti-Discriminatory Policing Techniques. I was responsible for the training and development in the field of Human Rights of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) made up of forty-two different nationalities at that time.
In 2001 I was appointed as Sergeant in charge of the newly formed Garda Racial and Intercultural Office, Community Relations, Harcourt Square – my role being to liaise with representatives of all minority groups and reassure them of Garda services available. It was here that I devised the role of the Ethnic Liaison Officer in order to ensure that the work of my office could be carried on at ground level in every Garda district in the country.
I completed an M.Phil in Ethnic and Racial Studies in Trinity College in 2004. I hold a Law Diploma from the College of Commerce, Rathmines (1988). I am now commencing my PhD in the UCD School of Sociology.
Conference Presentations:
‘Community Policing in a Multi-Cultural Society – The Anti-Discriminatory Policing Approach’. Offices of the Ministry of Interior, General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police, United Arab Emirates Training and Development Department, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2004)
‘Non Military Crisis Management’ – Application of International Anti-Discriminatory Policing Standards.Conference address delivered in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (2006 – 2008)
‘Best Practice in the Investigation of Racist Incidents and Hate Crime’ AEGIS Europe Conference Dublin (2007)
‘Application of the Ethnic Liaison Officer Role in Policing Multi-Cultural Ireland’ Conference of Embassies in Ireland, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin (2009)
‘Cultural Awareness Policing Techniques in the Investigation of Crime’ Address to Social Workers and Members of An Garda Siochana, Garda College, Templemore, Co. Tipperary.(2009)
Email: mcinerney.dave@gmail.com
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