Survey reveals discontent with rural policing

Rural policing and station closures are back in the spotlight after a Garda survey found that people living farthest from a Garda station reported the highest dissatisfaction levels with the service provided to the local community.

More than a third of people living more than 10km from their nearest station said they were unhappy with the local service compared to 24% of people living less than 1km from a station.

The Garda Public Attitudes Survey 2015 also found a quarter of crime victims did not report the incident. This included almost 30% of assault victims, nearly 20% of robbery- from- the-person victims and two-thirds of theft-from-the-person victims.

The survey also found that four out of 10 victims were dissatisfied with how gardaí handled their investigation.

Of 6,000 people surveyed:

• 34% of people living more than 10km from a garda station were dissatisfied with the local policing service compared to 24% of those living less than 1km away;
• Of the 34%, 23% said they were quite dissatisfied and 11% were very dissatisfied;
• 9% said they were very satisfied with the service compared to 21% of those living less than 1km away.

At the survey launch yesterday, assistant commissioner Michael O’Sullivan said he accepted people found a local station “comforting” but said it was better from a policing perspective to have members available in patrol cars.

“If I have a choice between two men in a patrol car and one in a station, I’d prefer two men in a patrol car. It’s about coverage. Being able to respond quickly to a call is absolutely essential. I am in the business of policing and protecting and I understand how they feel, but they get a better service if I had people to go quickly to incidents as distinct from one man in a station,” he said.

Assistant commissioner Anne-Marie McMahon said a number of stations would be reopened and their impact evaluated under the Programme for Government.

The survey found that 26% of crime victims did not report the incident for a range of reasons, including a belief gardaí could or would not do anything or because the incident was not serious enough.

High reporting rates were recorded for car theft (97%), robbery from a property (91%) and burglary (91%).

However, 21% of assault victims didn’t report, as well as 24% of criminal damage victims, 19% of robbery-from-the-person victims and 66% of theft-from-the-person victims.

Based on CSO 2015 recorded figures, this suggests an extra 4,900 assaults, 5,800 criminal damage incidents, 280 robbery from the person and 3,570 thefts from the person. Also, 58% of fraud victims and 73% of online fraud victims did not report.

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