Top garda would like to ‘flood’ city streets with officers

AN Assistant Garda Commissioner said he would be delighted to deploy more gardaí on the beat in Cork city, and could do so if changes in the legal system meant his subordinates didn’t have to spend so much time in the courts or on prisoner escorts.

Assistant Commissioner Adrian Culligan told a meeting of businessmen in the city yesterday that he was also concerned about the private security industry being unregulated, especially as in some instances it was being infiltrated by subversives.

In response to a claim by businesswoman Róisín de Leastar that she wouldn’t walk Cork’s streets at night, but would do so in Paris, the garda said Cork was by far a safer city than most in western Europe.

He said the average crime rate in Cork was 24 crimes per 1,000 people, which was extremely low. However, he did acknowledge some young people were responsible for loutish behaviour, had no respect for the police and were unable to handle drink, especially spirits known as “shots”. A far cry, he said, from the days when he was a young man and a few beers would simply send people to sleep.

Mr Culligan added parents had a great deal of responsibility in ensuring children behave responsibly.

“I don’t subscribe to crime being rooted in depravation and poverty. The big crime barons are not living in 14-storey apartment blocks, but in leafy suburbs with BMWs parked outside,” he said.

Mr Culligan, who is marking his 39th year policing the streets of Cork, said he would love to “flood” it with gardaí on the beat but unfortunately much of his manpower was being tied up in courts and on prisoner escorts.

Asked if he thought private security companies could take up some of the strain, he replied he was concerned the industry was not regulated.

“There are a certain amount of Republican dissidents taking it over. Ourselves and the UK are the only countries in western Europe where private security firms are totally unregulated,” he said.