O'Toole in running for Irish police post

Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole is a leading candidate for a high-ranking job overseeing policing standards for Ireland's national police force, according to two senior Irish law enforcement officials.

The Irish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the search is supposed to be private, stressed that the search is still active for the newly created post of chief inspector for the Garda Inspectorate, a position meant to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the 12,000-member national police force.

But a decision is expected to be made in the coming weeks, and O'Toole's experience as vice chairwoman of the commission that oversaw the reform of police in Northern Ireland has won her admirers among top Irish officials.

In an interview yesterday, O'Toole would not rule out taking the job if it were offered. She acknowledged that she had been approached by the Irish government about the job with the Garda Siochana, as the national police are known, ''within the last six months."

But she sought to downplay suggestions that she would soon leave the commissioner's post she has held since February 2004. She said she had not been offered the job in Ireland, nor had she sought it out, and had only been ''sounded out" about it.

She said ''it is way too early in that process" for her to speculate on the probability that she would be offered the position or whether she would take it.

''To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, I'm flattered to be considered for a job I haven't applied for," she said. ''The mayor knows I talk to people in Ireland all the time. But I'm very happy here. I'm not looking to leave."

The position was created by the Irish government last year to address problems with the police force, which has been reeling from an inquiry into corruption in Donegal and an increase in gangland killings in and around Dublin.

The legislation specifically calls for someone with senior-level policing experience outside Ireland, underscoring the government's desire to bring an independent person into the post.

The chief inspector will be charged with ensuring that the force adheres to so-called best practices, drawing on modern police tactics and training. The chief inspector will be authorized to make unannounced inspections in stations and in the field.

O'Toole is also close to a number of senior law enforcement officials in Ireland, including the justice minister, Michael McDowell, who will ultimately make the selection. She hosted McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy when they visited Boston to study the community policing.

Oonagh McPhillips, a spokeswoman for McDowell, confirmed that a government search committee has been approaching potential candidates for the job since December. But she said that no one has been offered the job and that the search committee has not provided McDowell with a list of recommended candidates.

In an interview with the Globe last year, after he toured various sections of Boston and met with community leaders, McDowell spoke highly of O'Toole, saying he viewed her as one of America's top law enforcement leaders.

McPhillips said the Irish government hoped to make the appointment ''in the coming weeks," but would not be more specific.

Rumblings about contacts between the Irish government and O'Toole about a job have touched off much speculation among officers in the Boston Police Department. The speculation was heightened after O'Toole did not appear at some senior staff meetings this week, but spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said her absences were unrelated.

O'Toole would probably face far less pressure in Ireland than she has during her two years in Boston, where police have confronted a rising homicide rate, an overstretched patrol force, and struggles to win community trust and solve violent crimes.

McPhillips said Ireland, a country of about 4 million people, averages about 50 homicides a year; Boston, with a population nearly 10 times smaller, had 75 last year, a 10-year high.

The legislation creating the chief inspector's job calls for a salary of about $134,000, which is less than the $160,000 O'Toole is currently earning, but one of the Irish law enforcement officials said there are ways to enhance the compensation package, with perks and other measures.

Beyond financial compensation, O'Toole is extremely fond of Ireland and visits regularly. Her daughter, Meghan, is a student at film school in Galway and her husband, Daniel, a retired Boston police detective, also likes Ireland and has visited often.

If she gets the job, O'Toole would take on an important role in the effort to overhaul the Garda Siochana, which means ''Guardians of the Peace" in the Irish language.

The 12,000-member force is slated to be increased by 2,000 officers by the end of this year.

The Donegal scandal, meanwhile, has led some to call for the overhaul of a police force that hasn't kept pace with Ireland's position as Europe's fastest growing economy for the last decade. Unlike most police forces in Europe, Ireland's has never had independent oversight, which critics say has led to a subculture of corruption.

A tribunal has spent the last three years hearing testimony that has tarnished the reputation of Ireland's police. Evidence has shown that police, acting on the word of a discredited informer, tried to frame members of one family for the beating death of a cattle dealer who, an autopsy later showed, had died after being hit by a car. There has also been testimony that police officers staged phony seizures of IRA explosives to win kudos from their superiors.

In response to the Donegal tribunal and other corruption and mismanagement, the Irish government launched a major overhaul and enacted the first major legislation on policing since the 1930s.

Globe correspondent Jim Cusack contributed to this report from Dublin.