More assaults and 'overzealous oversight' make policing 'even tougher', Garda conference told

GRA President Brendan O’Connor told delegates at the 46th annual conference at the Castlecourt Hotel in Westport, Co Mayo, that garda numbers remain 'dangerously below strength' placing extra workload, stress and pressure on our members. Picture: Conor Ó Mearáin

Increased assaults and intimidation of gardaí — both online and in person — and “an emboldened far-right” is now making policing in Ireland “even tougher”, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has heard.

Gardaí are now feeling “abandoned and exposed on many fronts,” outgoing GRA President Brendan O’Connor told delegates at the 46th annual conference at the Castlecourt Hotel in Westport, Co Mayo.

But not all attacks on gardaí have been from external sources, Mr O’Connor said, with “overzealous oversight and the use of internal discipline as a training tool” making many members “second guess” their policing methods.

“Gardaí in crime-ridden urban locations are afraid to pursue fleeing suspects and criminals for fear of being prosecuted while community Gardaí are fearful of using discretion and common sense when helping out vulnerable citizens,” he said.

Garda numbers also remain “dangerously below strength” placing extra workload, stress and pressure on our members, Mr O’Connor said.

The government plans to recruit 1,000 new gardaí, growing the force from 14,000 to 15,000 over the coming years. But the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors estimated at its recent annual conference that 18,000 gardaí were now needed to police Ireland’s growing population effectively.

Morale has continued to fall, Mr O’Connor said, with gardaí “feeling abandoned and exposed on many fronts.”

The GRA described the recent move to have all uniform gardaí provide 30 minutes of roads policing while on duty as a “PR exercise”.

Following record road deaths — with 64 so far this year — the garda commissioner recently announced the new initiative which garda management said is based on international research.

'Waste of resources'

But Mr O’Connor said the move may be “nothing more than a statistical exercise” with gardaí being told to record what they were already doing, diverting more time to paperwork and away from patrolling.

Gardaí already performed this function while on duty, he said, but now gardaí would have to “go back to stations, sit on the phone to a call centre in Mayo to record the details of a patrol that may not have resulted in anything, just so the job can issue a statement in three months time, saying ‘so many thousand patrols were carried out’.

“There may be benefits but it’s just recording what we’re already doing,” he said. “The organisation has become so statistically obsessed.”

James Morrisroe, GRA Central Executive Committee member, said that the move was a waste of garda time. Gardaí are already fulfilling this function, he said, but now they will have to log it online even when there’s nothing to report, creating extra work for an already overstretched force.

“It is a PR exercise,” he said. “It’s a waste of resources.”

The GRA also said that “there’s obviously going to be a lack of enforcement” on the roads when garda numbers are 1,000 below what they should be and the roads policing unit is chronically understaffed.