Al Hutchinson is a former RCMP Assistant Commissioner, who served as the Police Oversight Commissioner in Northern Ireland, who in November 2007 became the second Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
A graduate of Carleton University and Queen's University, Belfast, Hutchinson served in the Office of the Oversight Commissioner, Tom Constantine, who was charged with overseeing the Patten Reforms of the RUC, from 2001 until Constantine's retirement.
[citation needed] On 26 June 2007 Hutchinson was announced as the successor to Nuala O'Loan as Police Ombudsman, and took up the office on 6 November 2007.
The report branded the organisation's management as "dysfunctional", uncovered a major split in its staff, and found Hutchinson had lost the trust of senior colleagues.
In 2012, the Belfast High Court quashed the Ombudsman report's findings on the Loughinisland massacre.