Garda Survey Please Take Part

m4j

Hi,

I have a question for members in regards to the Garda Ombudsman and if in fact they are having a negative impact on your ability to carry out your jobs, I would welcome as much a response as possible. Its a YES or NO question and if you click on the site below you will see the question at the very end of the page. Also for other articles in regards to An Garda Siochana please see under NOVEMBER 07 on the side of the page.

www.stresskills.ie

Thank you so much for your time with this it is very much appreciated

metman

iS THE GARDA OMBUDSMAN COMMISSION IMPACTING IN A NEGATIVE WAY ON YOUR ABILITY TO DO YOUR JOBS IN A PROFESSIONAL AND IMPARTIAL MANNER?

Yes or No?

Hmmm. How very odd.

Why would an independent complaints authority impact on the professionalism or impartiality of individual police officers? Do you understand GSOCs role?


Or; what's the hidden agenda?

m4j

Metman I have removed my response to your mail, and hope that my final mail will better explain my position. I accept anyone being weary of such a question, but it is presented as a basic foot note to potential research in the future for a MSc degree.

I can assure you again that there is no hidden agenda, I posted here as in the past I have received extensive feedback from members on this site.

Members can either chose to get involved or not, my IT skills are basic and this is why my question is basic. I hope the final post will help to allevate your concerns.

Thank you for your interest and responses.

Cantab.

I wouldn't click on any external links if using Garda computers (no matter how trivial it may seem). Btw, I didn't see anything suspicious with www.stresskills.ie after a quick glance at the javascript. Also, be especially wary of tinyurl.com (which incidentally is blocked by my firewall) which may link to seemingly harmless video/image links etc.

You could be subject to an XSS attack and the attacker could get a copy of every cookie in your browser which could yield some very useful information. I think I remember someone already saying that the garda review website has been hacked via an XSS attack? It's not that hard to do.

Actually, I wouldn't use boards at all from a garda computer. The avatar functionality can be used to log IP addresses. Over time, you could form a profile on posters and collate useful information (e.g. IP addresses) of garda computers. I've seen very smart profiling scripts that do this (it's not rocket science). You could even record everything that's been said and apply statistical data mining techniques on individual posters.

Beware!

maglite

wow bigbrother pananoid


these are dangers associated with web use,

if you kept thinking about it you would never touch a computer,
but i suppose you should be carefull about what you do on a network, thats common sence

metman

m4j wrote: »

I believe many concerns both publicly and privately in regards to concerns with how the Garda Ombudsman carries out their duties, the manner in which members of the force are investigated and the level of information members receive in relation to these complaints. There is also an element of abuse I believe of this system going on in regards to some parts of the community using the Ombudsman to make false complaints against members. Hmmmm, how very odd that you do not seem to be aware of these concerns.

Are these your own concerns or concerns that members have expressed to you? If so, and if this is in any way an actual study, then why not approach Garda Review? The handful of members on here will hardly provide any data of empirical significance.

As regards malicious complaints; were you a police officer you would understand that complaints are an occupational hazard and if you are a proactive officer doing your job you will attract complaints. The reason for this? Criminals don't like police disrupting their activities and so use any means at their disposal to frustrate the process. Abuse of the complaints system being one such avenue. However, this is hardly breaking news and to suggest that this is a matter of concern for officers, well I wouldn't be losing any sleep over it. Most complaints are resolved at local level and GSOC actively encourages this.

And yes I am living in England now, and am au fait with the Garda, having friends and relatives on the force. I am also familiar with the complaints procedure, GSOC and the IPCC here.

GSOC has not been portrayed positively in the press I've seen, but how does that affect your survey? And no, I am not applying to GSOC for employment.....not at this time anyways, any other questions?

m4j

My Apologies it seems that I should have made my interst more clear at the start.

These issues have been brought to me directly, they have been published in both the local papers and the GR.

I am interested in the Area of Garda Support having run voluntary support service for those suffering stress in the workplace. I have no interest in money or ambulance chasing, I hold a fulltime and secure profession and do this simple to try and make a small difference in someway. Any research I carry out will be apart of my second MSc, previous research I have completed in this area has been published and all is passed through ethical committees. (there are easier research areas to look at, but believe in this subject matter, no matter how hard it proves to be)

The question is very basic but in the past I have found it very helpful to get a very basic pole to such questions as it helps me to formulate a more extensive research question.

I accept completly what you are saying and am glad that you can handle the pressure of having malicious complaints issued against you, however some can not handle this so easily and this impacts them and their families in negative ways. The issue of false allegations have proven to be a big factor in my research in the past and I would hope to possibly include this area in my future research. Your point about welfare already provided in the force is a good one, but my research has indicated that there is more support required a point accepted by all involved in welfare.

I accept completly that the manner in which I presented my first question was wrong, I had thought that it would be a simple issue that members could just respond to or not, I do normally have very formal routes to ask such questions but had considered that members on this site might be interested in getting involved, my site is a basic one, but has over 8000 hits and has articles on all levels of stress and depression etc that I understand from the many positive mails I receive to be of help to those in need.

I hope that this is of help and ask that you might consider editing some of your comments which are directed at me personally and not at my lack of explination. I apologie if my recent response was in anyway confrontational (I have deleted this), I had read your first post and found myself to be little taken aback by your comments however this does not give me the right to respond in a smart arse way to you, and I apologies for this and hope we can restart from a more respectful level.

I wish you well.

metman

m4j wrote:

as a Police Officer do you show everyone else the same attitude? is everyone guilty of something in your mind, can someone not try and be as good as they canbe in life.

I do not want to continue this line of conversation, but with respect ask that you consider some of your comments to me, I apologies if anything I have said has made you feel that you need to issue sly digs at the expense of trying to harm me and hope that if an open and non judgemental debate continues here that we can remain true to the spirit of the board.

I wish you well

Do I have a suspicious outlook generally? Of course I do. How many Police have you actually spoken to!? :rolleyes:

Look, if you are genuine in your endeavors then fine, crack on and best of luck. But to be perfectly honest, I imagine most Guards take the same view I take; Independent complaints investigators can get on with their job while I get on with mine. If I do wrong by anyone, then I expect to be complained about. At the same time when I deal with Johnny 'known scumbag burglar' Smith for yet another burglary I expect to get a complaint for police harassment from him because he's a prolific burglar who gets a lot of police attention on account of his activities but, somehow, feels like an aggrieved party. So he complains. When that complaint inevitably finds its way to my tray I won't lose any sleep. Par for the course mate. I thoroughly enjoy upsetting prolific criminals. Its what I do best.

m4j

Cantab. wrote: »

I wouldn't click on any external links if using Garda computers (no matter how trivial it may seem). Btw, I didn't see anything suspicious with www.stresskills.ie after a quick glance at the javascript. Also, be especially wary of tinyurl.com (which incidentally is blocked by my firewall) which may link to seemingly harmless video/image links etc.

You could be subject to an XSS attack and the attacker could get a copy of every cookie in your browser which could yield some very useful information. I think I remember someone already saying that the garda review website has been hacked via an XSS attack? It's not that hard to do.

Actually, I wouldn't use boards at all from a garda computer. The avatar functionality can be used to log IP addresses. Over time, you could form a profile on posters and collate useful information (e.g. IP addresses) of garda computers. I've seen very smart profiling scripts that do this (it's not rocket science). You could even record everything that's been said and apply statistical data mining techniques on individual posters.

Beware!

I think you are right, I would never use my work computer to access anything other than work related info, thank you for looking at my site, it is basic but safe, however, if I would take your advice completly about accessing any other site from Garda Computers.

Well said

m4j

The results of the very basic poll carried out are as follows.

Question: Is the Garda Ombudsman Commission impacting in a negative way on your ability to do your jobs in a professional and impartial manner?

Results: 17 Respondents voted YES. 6 Respondents voted NO.

This was a very basic poll that will help me to develop a research hypothesis in the future.

If anyone would like me to post a question that can be voted on please let me know, also if anyone would like to have an article, story etc posted on the site that could help others in need I would be more than happy to display them, all personal information is held in complete confidence if issued.

Thank you for the kind emails and support they are very much appreciated.