The Sunday Tribune can reveal that garda� have been cooperating with the new independent commission and called it out, on average, once a day in its first 30 days of business.

Members of the commission's 46-strong investigation team responded to these calls from garda command and control in Harcourt Square and found that in each case garda� had behaved properly and were not in any way at fault.

The Ombudsman is investigating an incident at Kingscourt Station in which a garda was filmed making fun of a local man who had phoned in seeking to speak to the sergeant. The video, probably recorded on a mobile phone, shows the garda laughing at the man along with colleagues, and taunting him by refusing to call him by his first name. An internal garda inquiry is also being held into the incident, although the garda involved is not expected to be disciplined.

A protocol has been agreed whereby any incident involving a garda is reported to the Ombudsman immediately for it to investigate. This can range from a road traffic accident to allegations of corruption or brutality.

Under the law, investigators from the office have control of any crime scene or potential crime scene and can seize evidence and interview people.

The general public have now made in excess of 300 complaints which are currently being examined, processed and investigated if necessary.

The Ombudsman launched an investigation last week after a garda from Cavan was filmed mocking a member of the public who phoned up concerned about joyriders.

The four-and-a-half minute tape which was posted on YouTube is being examined by officials and disciplinary action might follow.

A garda source said: "We realise that the Ombudsman is here to stay and we accept this and have cooperated from day one. The fact that we have asked them to investigate garda� on over 30 occasions backs this up.

"They came to the affected stations and were treated very well and they acted very professionally and in line with agreed protocols.

In 100% of the cases it was found that the garda� had acted professionally and there were no grounds for further investigation."

Two weeks ago Ombudsman detectives closed down Killaloe garda station in Co Clare for a time after a man suffered an injury while in custody.

The investigation determined that this was self inflicted and that the individual had resisted arrest after a domestic incident. He was very drunk and apologised to officers when he sobered up.

It is expected that the Commission will scrutinise a number of high profile cases that have appeared in the media over the last number of years.

Around 20 Shell to Sea protestors have indicated that they will be making complaints about alleged garda brutality. There are however a significant number of court cases pending against certain protestors for allegedly assaulting garda� at the site.

Despite a high profile media campaign by the family of Terence Wheelock, who died in garda custody in Store Street two years ago, no complaint has been made about his death.

Garda� say that he died after attempting to hang himself and an internal inquiry found that officers had no case to answer.

Sources say they are surprised about the failure of the Wheelocks to ask for the Ombudsman to probe the 20-year-old's death because they have filed other complaints alleging harassment at the hands of garda�.

Last Friday a judge at Dublin District Court issued an arrest warrant against Gavin Wheelock after he failed to appear in court to answer charges of being in possession of an offensive weapon last year. He is also facing further charges of assault in connection with another incident on 17 May 2006.

No complaint has been received about the death of Derek O'Toole, who was killed after being struck by a car driven by an off-duty garda in Lucan last March.

Investigators from the Ombudsman's office were criticised following the death of a garda detective at Harcourt Square in Dublin last month.

They were accused of operating their sirens and blocking the main entrance at the Dublin Metropolitan Headquarters in a bid to get to the scene. Sources in the office have vigorously denied that they blocked any entrance and said they were requested to park in front of the building while a uniformed garda made a phone call to check whether they should be let into the building.

The source said: "We did want to get to the scene quickly out of respect for the officer and his colleagues. We would have been criticised if we had arrived after a few hours. The urgency happened because we wanted to be sensitive and our cars did not block any entrance.

"We are happy with the way that operation went and there were no complaints from any garda� at the scene and things went smoothly in what was a tragic case. Things have gone very well so far in general, " the source added.