Group urges action on patrol cars
Chief Inspector Robert K Olson, who took over as boss of the watchdog last June, warned that while new patrol cars were coming on-stream, there may not be enough to keep pace and it is likely this problem won’t be rectified until the economy picks up.
Mr Olson — who has held several senior policing posts in the US — said there would be “long-term issues” with the Garda fleet if further action wasn’t taken.
He told a public meeting in Cork yesterday that patrol cars are being scrapped on a daily basis due to safety concerns when they clock up 300,000km.
Mr Olson said while 170 new patrol cars were coming on-stream, it was “only a Band Aid (plaster) for the time being”.
However, he acknowledged that financing new cars was dependent on the Government having the necessary funds, which might not be feasible in the present economic climate.
Mr Olson told a meeting of the Cork City joint policing committee in the Clarion Hotel that Garda management is trying to juggle by swapping low-mileage cars in urban areas for ones in rural areas nearing the 300,000km cut-off.
However, he said this, allied to keeping up Garda patrols in rural areas, especially where stations have recently closed, could “act as a double-edged sword”.
He predicted this could result in even more cars being written off at the same time due to high mileage.
There has to be “a continued and clear plan” to address this, he said, otherwise the fleet would “deteriorate further”.
John Parker, president of the Garda Representative Association which represents rank-and-file officers, said Mr Olson was echoing what his organisation had been flagging for years.
“The Garda fleet is not being replaced at the rate it needs to be and we have said this consistently. Now we have an independent expert tasked by the Government to review the effectiveness and efficiency (of the gardaí) and he is backing the argument we have continually put forward,” Garda Parker said.
He maintained the lack of patrol cars meant many rural communities “weren’t getting the Garda cover they were entitled to”.
Mr Olson also proposed more civilians be recruited to free-up gardaí for frontline duties. He said several administration-type jobs could be done by civilians.
His deputy, Mark Toland, a former senior officer in the London Met, said that in parts of Britain anything between 15% and 20% of police forces were backed by civilian employees, while in the US this figure was higher.
