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Very interesting Niall. I'd guess that Peter Williams was typical of so many of the RIC in that he was professional police; he simply did his job, kept his political opinions to himself, and earned the trust of the community. I'm so pleased when posts like yours appear; it is the whole point of this web forum to try and present the old RIC as a body of men who represented so much of what is good about Ireland, and its policing heritage, whilst recognising that a period of our history led to a gross distortion of this fact and sullied the name of the force.
Of course Sgt Wlliams may also have been a covert IRA sympathiser, and passed on information. You may be able to look up Bureau of Military History records and see if his name appears in any local accounts; though given your wider family history I doubt it. I'd guess he was just a good, well respected peeler. There have been several members on this forum, and others I have corresponded with privately, whose relatives did pass on information to the IRA, and later severely regretted it. One constable, who was involved in a famous and tragic incident of 1919, never forgave himself for the fact that his colleagues were shot right in front of him. Of course he never expected that 3 killings would come out of the little snippet he gave...
As regards Leap (is it pronounced Lepp locally?) the ambush you referred to took place at Brade, on 2 July 1920. Head Constable Joyce, Constables Heffron, Buckley and Webster, were cycling to Skibbereen to collect the pay for the police at Leap. They were attacked by around 30 IRA at Brade, beat them off, and escaped unharmed. The Dineen brothers from Leap were arrested as part of the gang, but aquitted. Buckley later joined the RUC. I think Webster was a Black and Tan - but I'm working from memory. Here is a photo of what I believe was the ambush site. Maybe you could dig around locally and find out more, and maybe get us a picture of where the barracks was in Leap?