Intelligence led, smart policing is the order of the day. The Annual Policing Plan 2015 launched by the Garda Commissioner set out the policing commitments of the service and set the priorities for An Garda Síochána as determined by the Minister for Justice and Equality under Section 20 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.
The Garda Commissioner stated “I am conscious that the close relationship we enjoy with communities across the country remains critical to our ability to prevent and tackle crime. We do not take this relationship for granted and will work to maintain and develop these strong links. Combining our community engagement and community policing philosophy with a renewed sense of public service and duty will be a priority for the entire organisation in 2015”.
That statement rings hollow now in view of the destruction of the effective system of community engagement that once existed in this jurisdiction. The Minister and the Commissioner are quick to point out that the closure of rural garda stations has not undermined policing. In fact they have argued that the rural community will somehow benefit from an improved service because of it.
In an article in The Irish Examiner on Wednesday, January 06, 2016 Elaine Loughlin reported that Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald had ruled out reopening Garda stations which had closed in recent years and she said the focus would now be on “smart policing”.
She said there were large parts of the country where crime rates were lower and therefore didn’t need the same concentration of garda stations as other areas. Ms Fitzgerald said that gardaí were making better use of technology and instead of having a station, a single garda could be made responsible for a particular area.
Apparently she also said: “What you have to do is give the gardaí the technology. People say you need the garda station in order to have local knowledge. What we are doing is around the country, you may not have a station but you will have a garda responsible for that area, going out working with Community Alert.”
The statements made by Minister Fitzgerald underlines the lack of understanding by politicians of the basics of policing and further underlines why it is imperative that political influence in defining policing strategy must be ended.
There are a number of issues at stake here;
The general lack of resources and the shortage of manpower in the specialist units
The ban on recruitment
The new roster system
The closure of the rural garda stations
The dilution of community engagement.
While these are regularly addressed separately by the authorities they are, in fact, all connected.
The moratorium on recruitment over the last few years created the first link in the chain of manpower shortage and cut off the supply of new gardai. Retirements and promotions reduced the core number annually which meant that not only was the Force not maintaining its numbers but was actually decreasing in size.
An Garda Siochana traditionally operated a four shift system. The introduction of the new roster system created a fifth shift which required extra manpower and created a headache for garda management who now had to find those extra resources from somewhere. The closure of rural garda stations allowed for those members to be transferred to larger urban areas to fill some of those vacancies. Community gardai were also utilised to make up numbers. Removing all these members had a direct negative impact on community engagement and intelligence gathering.
This problematic fifth shift also created another difficulty for garda management in so far as there are members falling over each other at certain times when there is no great demand for them and a shortage of manpower at other times when the demand is high. So it is possible to have two shifts overlapping at 12 noon on certain days in the week and the bare bones of a shift working in the early hours of the weekend when the night clubs are emptying their cargo onto the streets.
The manpower shortage also meant that there were very few opportunities for gardai to transfer from regular policing duties to the specialised units such as armed response units and the various detective units. Many of these were also being depleted due to promotions and natural wastage. So now there are fewer armed gardai available to support those working at the coal face which means it is more likely that unarmed gardai will continue to be the first responders to incidents like the recent events in the regency Hotel in Dublin.
How in the face of this, both the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner can agree that An Garda Siochana is adequately resourced is a mystery to many. They seem to limp along from one incident to the next without any definite plan while at the same time suggesting that everything is under control. But there is supposed to be a plan because one of the roles of the newly established Policing Authority is to approve one. So where is it?
Maybe the plan should involve getting back to basics. Put bodies back on the streets and into the communities. Let policemen and women do what they do best. Engage with people, gather intelligence, enforce the law and go after the bad guys. It’s time for those in charge to show the leadership and honesty that the troops on the ground deserve to ensure that they have the protection and the resources to do their job as safely and as effectively as possible.
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