Gardaí trying to minimise numbers getting coronavirus - but won't scale back duties

"This is a health issue, not a police issue, but to do police work our guards need to be healthy – that’s the real issue from a garda point of view."

Sat, 14 Mar, 2020 - 11:32

Cormac O’Keeffe

Local garda commanders are scrambling to minimise the numbers of gardaí contracting Covid-19 and assist members with children in a bid to maintain policing services.

Senior officers told the Irish Examiner that unlike other organisations they can’t “scale down” their business, as criminals will not only continue to operate but will try to exploit the crisis.

“Our primary responsibility is to keep our guards healthy so they can do policing,” said one commander.

This is a health issue, not a police issue, but to do police work our guards need to be healthy – that’s the real issue from a garda point of view.

Another senior officer said that while he had only one or two members having to self-isolate, that he expected the situation to change as the weeks go by.

“I’m assuming a significant amount of gardaí will get the virus, so my aim is to try and spread out when they get it, through hygiene in stations, having them rested, keep units separate, hygiene in cars, close off areas in stations, all to minimise it.”

One local commander said childminding for gardaí was a big issue: “You could have a guard married to a guard, or married to a nurse or whatever and are in a situation where no one can mind their children, particularly those of school age.

“They are now doing a 12-hour shift [up from 10-hour], so they are starting at 7am, leaving home at 6am, and not back till 8pm.

In addition, prior to that they might have had their grannies minding the children and that’s now out, or advised. That’s an issue, but has to be managed.

Another senior officer said: “This is going to be a big practical issue and we are going to be no different than any other employer – but the big difference is we can’t scale down our business and the vast majority of guards can’t work from home.”

'They will still be prosecuted, but it will kick the can down the road'

A number of local commanders said that instead of arresting people for minor offences and bringing them back to stations to charge them, that members are being advised to issue them with summons to appear in court at a later date.

“There is no instruction from HQ not to arrest people,” said one senior officer, “it’s just, for certain minor offences, where the garda knows the offender, that they will issue a summons. They will still be prosecuted, but it will kick the can down the road.”

This is in addition to options of issuing fines and cautions, which were mentioned by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, who stressed there was “no ban on arrests” and that alternatives should only be used if appropriate.

One source said: “Criminals will not agree to self-isolate so there will still be arrests.”

Another said: “For our clientele, it will be business as usual and many of them will look to exploit this and we will have to respond to that - they need to know we will be full on.”

One commander did not envisage members having to go into shopping centre or pubs and having to disperse people.

“This will probably be self-policing, with people either not going out or staying away from people, because they don’t want to get infected,” said one source.