€4m garda incident centre saves hundreds of working hours
The PULSE call centre was recently set up in Castlebar, Mayo, and is accounting for up to 9,000 calls a week from gardaí recording incidents.
When fully operational, the centre can expect to be processing about 11,000 incidents weekly.
Chief Superintendent Louis Larkin explained: “All gardaí going out on the street are using configured mobiles instead of travelling to stations. They can call in incidents from the side of the street or from their patrol car. It maintains their presence on the beat.”
Around 160 full-time operators are manning the round-the-clock call station. Detectives can both record reported crimes and seek access to files. Records can be manually accessed through operators. However, gardaí will personally have to manually input all crimes of a sexual nature into PULSE through their station computers.
“They have a PIN when they ring up for confidential reasons. We were looking, internationally, at voice-activated systems, but it did not seem like the best one,” added the senior garda.
Known as the Garda Information Services Centre (GISC), the nerve system will be manned primarily by civilian support staff transferred from Government departments.
Its running costs are estimated at €6 million annually. At present 75% of all incidents recorded by gardaí go through the system.
However, the system is also functioning as a report centre on irresponsible drivers. TrafficWatch is also being run from the Mayo base, currently averaging about 300 calls weekly from motorists reporting potentially dangerous road incidents. Members of the public who report drivers allegedly breaching road traffic regulations, can expect to get through to the centre within 20 seconds, according to gardaí involved in the project.
Procedures for vehicle interceptions can also be arranged when worried members of the public call the line.
TrafficWatch can be contacted on 1890 205805.
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