Financial crimes to top Garda agenda
The Garda Policing Plan 2012 also seeks to divert of young offenders by “challenging” their behaviour. Tackling property crime, crimes against the person, organised crime and terrorism remain the force’s main priorities, according to the plan.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said he was “operating under budgetary constraints” but added it was no different than other public sector organisations.
He said the plan, his first policing plan since assuming the job, reflected the priorities of the gardaí as determined by the minister for justice as set out under legislation.
Mr Callinan said 39 Garda stations would close, including eight currently non-operational.
He announced amalgamations of the Laytown district into the Ashbourne district in the Meath division and the Abbeyleix district with the Portlaoise district in the Laois /Offaly division.
Referring to his priorities, Mr Callinan said: “Our core activity remains the prevention and detection of crime and we will use all the resources available to us to effectively target crimes against the person, property crime, organised crime including drug trafficking, e-crime and financial crime.
“An Garda Síochána will continue to confront criminality in all its forms and we will relentlessly tackle offenders and use intelligence and analysis to target operations against organised crime and dissident groups.”
The plan is broken down into five categories: protecting national security; confronting crime; effective road policing; ensuring peaceful communities and working with communities.
Confronting crime contains new priorities, most notably tackling e-crime and white-collar crime.
On e-crime, the plan commits to “proactive targeting of criminal organisations and individuals who engage in financial crime in areas of business, money laundering, terrorist financing and card payments”.
On white-collar crime, it said specialist units, including the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Criminal Assets Bureau, would work with the Director of Corporate Enforcement to “fully investigate complex commercial fraud cases”.
The plan said they “will reduce property crimes such as burglaries, thefts and robberies” by targeting offenders, especially repeat offenders and targeting crime hotspots.
Sexual crime, human trafficking and crimes against children are also mentioned as priorities in this area.
On national security, the plan for the first time specifically states identifying “threats to other countries emanating from terrorist and extremist elements within this jurisdiction”.
* www.garda.ie
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