McDowell rejects garda calls for safety gear
Kitting out gardaí in riot gear could prove counter-productive by upping the ante in public order disputes, he said.
“I have no particular plans to provide more equipment. I don’t like the Robocop image that’s involved in that,” Mr McDowell said. “We can’t have a situation where ordinary gardaí become indistinguishable from riot squads. The armoury approach might be counterproductive. It might not deter assaults and might have the opposite effect.”
However, garda representative associations reacted angrily to his comments and stressed stab vests, sprays and modern batons, were needed to protect gardaí against an increasing number of assaults.
Official figures show assaults are also costing the State millions in compensation. Last year, a Galway-based garda received 447,000 after being knifed in the head and a Dublin garda received 292,000 after being beaten up and savagely kicked.
“We’re not looking for Robocop image either. We don’t want people dressed in suits of armour, but I don’t want my members coming back with broken teeth or noses
after a shift,” PJ Stone of the Garda Representative Association said. “My policing colleagues in Scotland will not go on duty without mace spray.”
He said gratuitous assaults on gardaí had increased three-fold in the last four to five years. “Our last research showed that in Dublin, there was no night where members were not brought to casualty. We’re talking about people who’d cut your throat and come back for the loose change. The minister has to understand that concept,” he said.
George Maybury of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said employers were obliged to protect their employees.
“There is a duty of care on the part of the Government to individual policemen and their families.” He said equipment, such as stab vests, were not provocative. “They are purely defensive and protective.”
Meanwhile, garda associations are concerned at reports Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy will push for cutbacks on the proposed hiring of 2,000 additional gardaí. “If Mr McCreevy cuts back we will have major problems,” said Mr Maybury.
But Mr McDowell was adamant there would be no cutbacks. “The recruitment is definitely going to happen,” he said.
