Dear Reader

Let’s pause to think about the condition  of the state’s system for handling complaints about the police.

“When I was a lad, I served a term

As an office boy in an Attorney’s Firm

I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor

And I polished up the handle of the big front door

…now I am the Ruler of the Queens’ Navie!”

[Gilbert and Sullivan]

The present Big O is Michael Maguire.

He was appointed in July 2012.

Before that he was Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Inspectorate 2008-2012.

Before that he was a partner in consultancy firms including PA and Price Waterhouse. I wonder how many contracts, for which he was paid, depended on state aid?

As Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in 2011, he was asked to investigate the Ombudsman’s Office. He said that “the ways in which the OPONI deals with the investigation of historic cases ‘ has lead to a lowering of operational independence'”

A year later he was Big O!

Who took over from him?

Why, Brendan McGuigan , who was for 34 years a policeman!

Who is his deputy? James Corrigan. Who worked for a number of years for PA consulting. Does that ring a bell?

John Keanie, Public Appointments Commissioner, has recently expressed concern about the system for appointment  and how it seems to be incestuous. But guess what he did before he was commissioner?

Citizens might wonder how these people, who rise without a trace, from the ranks of the state’s employ, can possibly be regarded as independent?