Watchdog alarm over Garda resources
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris following a Policing Authority meeting in February. The Authority has said the Garda staffing crisis is 'constricting' the organisation’s ability to improve community policing, tackle economic crime, and implement reforms. Picture: PA
The Garda staffing crisis is “constricting” the organisation’s ability to improve community policing, tackle economic crime, and implement reforms, according to the Policing Authority.
The watchdog said the covid-related closure of the Garda College had a “profound” impact on Garda numbers with more than 1,000 fewer gardaí available than originally planned.
The report comes as official Garda figures show Garda numbers are teetering above 14,000, compared to 14,750 three years ago.
In its Assessment of Policing Performance 2022, the authority said the resourcing problems are having “very real consequences” for policing services and for communities.
The report is particularly critical of the Government and An Garda Síochána for failing to properly resource the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, tasked with combating "a growing" crime problem.
It said the Hamilton Review, published in April 2021, called for a “substantial, sustained and ring-fenced increase” in the bureau's resources.
The authority said the review was accepted by the Government and that An Garda Síochána committed to providing a resourcing plan by June 2021.
“This resourcing plan is outstanding, and there has been no real increase in resources within the bureau in the intervening period,” the report said.
It said competitions had just backfilled vacancies caused by retirements, promotions, and transfers.
It said gardaí had conducted an “initial examination” of additional members and staff required.
"However this has not been approved by the Garda Executive at this time and engagement to date has not indicated that there is sufficient consideration given by the organisation to the estate and IT needs of such an increase," the report said.
It said confidence in the organisation’s ability to tackle economic crime is “vitally important”. It said these crimes can involve international crime gangs.
“These are complex and resource intensive investigations and while there are encouraging examples of success, there is a growing number of cases that are at risk of not being adequately responded to without sufficient resourcing.”
The report said resourcing was also hitting protective service units, victim service offices, the Anti-Corruption Unit, the IT section, and the Strategic Transformation Office, which has “critical staffing deficits” of 50% to 60%.
It said that while 2,120 gardaí were due to enter college between 2020 and 2022, covid restrictions meant that just 775 were taken in.
A total of 1,040 members were attested over the three years, but 1,150 gardaí left the organisation.
Despite the resource problems, the report noted “transformational” improvements in the policing response to domestic and sexual violence, cybercrime, anti-corruption, diversity and hate crime.
The report said the authority had “considerable concerns” about the Garda disciplinary process, including the “potentially inappropriate use of discipline as a proxy for performance management, the lengthy periods of time that the disciplinary processes take and the resultant impact on suspension durations”.
