Garda reserve will not work, says top US police chief

ONE of America’s most distinguished police officers has claimed a garda reserve won’t work because the force cannot rely on volunteers.

John Timoney, who is credited with seriously reducing crime in New York with a zero tolerance policy, said Ireland needs more full-time gardaí instead of relying on reserves.

Mr Timoney, who turned a crime-ridden Big Apple around in the mid-1990s under its mayor, Rudy Giuliani, said the real problem is that gardaí are understaffed.

He pointed out that New York, with a population of eight million, has 40,000 full-time police officers and 10,000 civilian workers. In comparison, Ireland, with half that population, has just 12,000 gardaí.

“Clearly they are under-funded. Ireland is doing very well now, but there’s a need to spend some of the money on the criminal justice system,” he said.

Mr Timoney, who is now police chief in Miami, also criticised the practice of having garda stations with limited opening hours.

He said there is a need “to do a complete top to bottom assessment and to recognise that to have Dromahair station in Leitrim (where his father comes from) open two hours a day is ludicrous”.

He said he didn’t pretend to know more than Justice Minister Michael McDowell, but believes there needs to be literally a count of every single village and city to attain the proper number of gardaí required to police these areas.

Mr Timoney told Matt Cooper on the Last Word programme that he is in favour of recruiting civilians for some jobs.

“If you don’t need a gun and a shield (in America) to do the job, then you try to hire civilians and get the police out on the street,” he said.

Garda Representative Association (GRA) general secretary PJ Stone last night urged Mr McDowell to listen to such a “senior and respected” policeman.

“The minister is listening to no one but himself. He has instigated a lot of good things, but he has now lost the run of himself. We are 30 years behind New York in equipment, never mind in relation to manpower,” Mr Stone said.

Reiterating that creating a reserve force “will be more of a hindrance than a help”, the GRA’s general secretary said appointing a chief superintendent, superintendent and inspector to oversee it is a waste of resources and taxpayers’ money.

The GRA and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) are on a collision course with Mr McDowell over his plans to introduce a 4,000-strong reserve force. They are bitterly opposed to the move, but Mr McDowell said this week that the public may turn on gardaí if they are not willing to cooperate.