Only emergency calls recorded at Cork Garda HQ

Only emergency calls are monitored at the sole station in Cork City and county which records telephone conversations.

The emergency calls are monitored by the control room at Anglesea Street Garda Station.

It is the only station in the city which has a recording facility and, as it has no holding cells, there is no likelihood of phone calls between prisoners and solicitors being recorded.

At a Cork City joint policing committee meeting yesterday, Chief Superintendent Michael Finn said the Anglesea Street control room, which monitors around-the-clock emergency calls, was the only area of the station where such calls were recorded.

He was replying to a question from Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, who sought clarification on the issue of tape recordings in the city.

Chief Supt Finn said that he would respond to the request in an effort to provide public assurances, but was not going to engage in a questions-and-answers session on the topic with the committee members.

“None of the Garda stations [in the city] outside of Anglesea Street have recordings,” he said. “The only place [there] is in the control room and I’m not making any further comments.”

There are no holding cells in Anglesea Street, which further doubles as Cork City Garda Division headquarters and regional headquarters for the Garda Southern Region.

Cells in the city are confined to the Bridewell, Togher, Gurranabraher, and Mayfield Garda stations. The Irish Examiner understands none of those stations ever had recording equipment installed.

Just over a year ago, the control room in Anglesea Street took over responsibility for monitoring all emergency calls in Cork City and county.

Prior to that, emergency calls from West Cork were monitored at Bandon Garda Station, while similar calls coming from North and East Cork were handled by gardaí in Fermoy.

The Irish Examiner also understands that, following the centralisation of the emergency calls, recording facilities are no longer operational in Bandon or Fermoy.

As a result of the rationalisation, gardaí in the Anglesea Street control room now handle tens of thousands of calls every year.

They are recorded for a number of reasons: In case of hoaxes; deliberate incrimination of an innocent victim; or if they appear in first instance to be semi-audible — sometimes a person calling in an emergency situation can seem rushed and confused.

In such cases, gardaí can replay the calls to ascertain what course of action to take.

Apart from his reference to the Anglesea Street control room, Chief Supt Finn only made one other comment about the recent phone recording revelations and the unexpected retirement of Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

Towards the end of the JPC meeting, he said that, during the past week, “gardaí had received tremendous support” from members of the JPC and the community in general.

“Morale has been low at times, no doubt about that. But we do take strength from the support,” Chief Supt Finn said.

Valerie O’Sullivan, a senior official with Cork City Council who sits on the JPC, said the committee was a model for how a local authority and the gardaí could work together successfully for the good of the community.

“You have our unstinting support,” she told Chief Supt Finn.