Just three gardaí suspended for abusing communications system 

One member of garda rank was disciplined in 2019 and a further two, also rank-and-file gardaí, were sanctioned in 2020 for the 'abuse of information services within An Garda Síochána. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Just three gardaí were sanctioned for abusing the force’s communications and data systems in two years where more than 200,000 emergency calls had been cancelled.

More than 200,000 emergency calls were cancelled (deleted from Garda systems before a PULSE record could be created for follow-up action) between January 2019 and October 2020, the period covered by a subsequent internal Garda review of the matter — specifically into more than 2,000 domestic violence/sexual assault calls (DVSA) which appeared to have been cancelled for 'invalid reasons'.

One member of garda rank was disciplined in 2019 and a further two, also rank-and-file gardaí, were sanctioned in 2020 for the 'abuse of information services within An Garda Síochána, that is phone communications, email and data recording systems such as PULSE', according to the Department of Justice.

It is unclear whether or not those disciplinary measures related directly to possible abuse of the gardaí’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system — which has been in place since 1987 — nor whether the measures constituted a full suspension.

The information, contained in a parliamentary question response to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, states that no disciplinary action was taken against force members in either 2018 or 2021 for the misuse of communications systems.

Previously, the Irish Examiner revealed that 25 gardaí were suspended in 2019, and 41 in 2020, with 86 remaining on suspension as of November 25, 2021.

Independent report

An independent report into the cancelled calls controversy, published in November 2021, found that “serious risk or harm” to individuals may have resulted from the cancelled calls.

The report, compiled by the former chief inspector of constabulary in Scotland Derek Penman and commissioned by the Policing Authority after it became dissatisfied with the pace and transparency of the official Garda probe in July 2021, made 25 findings and 13 recommendations regarding the mass cancellation of 999 calls.

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It also appeared to contradict Garda Commissioner Drew Harris’s previous assertion to the Policing Authority that the issue of cancelled calls could in part be blamed on the force’s CAD system.

“The service failures arising from cancelled incidents and other workarounds by members cannot be attributed to failures in the CAD System,” Mr Penman wrote in his report.

A project to develop an upgraded CAD system began in late 2020 with a budget of €15.4m. The new system is expected to go live in early 2023. Some €3.9m has been spent on the new system to date.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Policing Authority, the independent oversight body for An Garda Síochána, established in 2016, raised issues with the initial terms of reference (TORs) for the internal cancelled emergency calls probe, which began in October 2020 and has yet to conclude.

Documents released to the Irish Examiner under freedom of information show that in a letter to Commissioner Harris in May 2021, Policing Authority chief executive Helen Hall said that the terms of reference “do not appear to reflect the breadth and depth of the work that we understand is currently being undertaken to uncover how the cancellation of calls arose and indeed the actions that have already been taken to manage and resolve the situation”.