Dr Vicky Conway’s research expertise in policing and police accountability has been called upon twice this week by RTE, Ireland’s national public-service broadcaster.
On Monday evening, Dr Conway was invited to appear on Drivetime, RTE’s evening news magazine show hosted by Mary Wilson. She was asked to respond to calls from representative bodies of the Garda (Ireland’s national police force) that policing oversight bodies should be merged.
Dr Conway said: ‘I argued that this would lead to confusion in practice and potentially a watering down of accountability, given that the justification of the proposal was to save money.’
You can listen again to Dr Conway’s interview on the RTE Drivetime website (with Dr Conway’s interview beginning approximately one hour and 40 minutes into the clip).
On Tuesday evening, Dr Conway was asked to participate in a panel discussion on RTE’s Late Debate. Dr Conway said: ‘The discussion concerned a Commission of Inquiry which is looking both at how the last police Commissioner came to resign amid allegations he was illegally sacked, and at concerns of the recording of solicitor – client phone calls in Garda stations over a 20 year period.’
Listen again to the debate on the RTE Late Debate website.
Dr Conway’s research expertise in policing, miscarriages of justice and criminology is regularly called upon by Irish media. Last year, she was quoted as a ‘top security expert’ by Irish newspaper, Herald.ie. She has previously appeared on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland show, the Morning Edition on RTE One (a live, national news and discussion programme on Ireland’s mainstream television channel) and on Newstalk’s Lunchtime radio programme.
Dr Conway is the author of The Blue Wall of Silence on police accountability and the Morris Tribunal. Her third book, Policing Twentieth Century Ireland was published last year by Routledge. For more information about her research and publications, visit Dr Conway’s staff profile page.