New system to handle court warrants

A new Garda system to handle court warrants — including the some 120,000 warrants outstanding — will deal with cases similar to ones highlighted in the Garda inspectorate report.

Bench warrants:

Case 1: A garda warrant office had 20 warrants for a person who could not be identified. There were no fingerprints or addresses. Requests were sent across the country asking districts for any information that could help to identify the person. In one case of shop- lifting in 2006, the arresting garda was unable to remember the case. To date, 18 of the 20 warrants have been cancelled and it is unlikely that the other two warrants will be progressed.