Gardaí want businesses to pay for night street patrols

NIGHTCLUB owners and retailers may have to pay the cost of putting extra gardaí outside their premises to combat late-night street crime, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy said yesterday.

“There are proposals for the deployment of gardaí, paid for by retailers, to streets where there are a large number of people, especially late at night,” he said.

“Despite rigorous enforcement it is an area that gives me and many others a cause for frustration and concern,” he said.

“Public order offences are a reflection of the way we as a society have chosen to live,” he told a business meeting in Waterford, referring to the role alcohol abuse plays in assaults, criminal damage and breaches of the peace.

It takes approximately three hours of garda time to pursue each of the 6,000 public order offences detected nationally from start to finish.

The idea of paying gardaí extra money to police these areas is being considered by a working group set up under the chairmanship of Assistant Commissioner Al McHugh.

Superintendent Michael McGarry, from the Waterford Garda Division, confirmed the group had already met a number of times.

“We’re looking at it on a national front,” he said. “There are legal issues to be resolved but the idea is that nightclub owners, for example, would pay for more gardaí outside their premises at night,” he said.

Commissioner Conroy said the measure was one which could increase the visibility of gardaí at a minimal cost to the State.

With limited resources the commissioner said on-the-spot fines might be introduced to limit the time spent by gardaí in processing an extensive workload.

“If we believe this could be beneficial I will bring it to the notice of the Minister for Justice and I am fully confident he will support it to increase the visibility of gardaí,” he said.

Mr Conroy also said the Government should consider recruiting extra gardaí, employing civilians in administrative roles to free up more of the force for “core frontline duties” as well as increasing overtime.

“This is one of the cheapest ways of improving garda visibility as it requires little training,” he said.

“A higher garda profile can be a significant deterrent to growing crime,” he said.

However, a civil liberties group said on-the-spot fines, contained in the 2004 Criminal Justice Bill, would deny citizens their right to due process and could sour relations between the gardaí and the public.

The danger is that gardaí will be acting as judge and jury, said Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) director Aisling Reidy. “This goes to the very core of due process,” she said.

“People are going to feel aggrieved at gardaí who will be making an assessment that someone has committed a public order offence,” said Ms Reidy.

Under the bill, gardaí will be able to issue on-the-spot fines to anyone they believe is engaging in offensive conduct or unreasonable behaviour likely to cause serious offence or annoyance.

Offenders will be handed a notice stating they have to pay the fine within 28 days. They then have a further 28 days but will be liable for a surcharge of 50%.

The level of fines has not been worked out. The Department of Justice would only say it will be less than maximum €1,500 that a court can hand down. It is likely to be in the region of €100.

The ICCL will this week publish its response to the overall bill, which also contains provisions giving gardaí much greater powers of arrest and detention and also deals with the admissibility of witness statements.