Key Limerick crime units to be disbanded under new garda roster plan

Crime fighting units that have been key to gardaí toppling Limerick drug gangs and putting gangland criminals behind bars, are to be disbanded as a consequence of the Garda Commissioner’s controversial working hours plan.

Garda management in Limerick “informed members attached to community policing that their units were being disbanded, and they were being reassigned to core frontline duties”, Garda Frank Thornton of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said.

“In addition members attached to the rural drugs unit are also being redeployed onto frontline duties, and proactive operations like Operation Croí have been discontinued, which in effect erodes all the efforts to date in combating crime and drug activity in Limerick."

Operation Croí was set up to combat the sale and supply of drugs, particularly to combat the city’s growing crack cocaine problem, anti-social behaviour, public order, and theft from shops.

The rosters row contributed to over 9,000 gardaí expressing no confidence in the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, last Wednesday.

When asked if there will be any dedicated community policing unit operating in Limerick City under the roster plans, a senior garda source replied: “There will be none”.

I never thought the day would come that we would have these types of changes to community policing, but this is where it is going unfortunately.

“These officers will be pulled back to frontline policing and will have no time to conduct community policing. What is happening now is just awful,” another Garda source said.

Other specialised units, including roads policing, are “coming under the microscope” of garda HQ, a senior source said. The situation is to be replicated in garda divisions right across the country, the source said.

The redeployment of officers from community policing and the rural drug unit is understood to involve in the region of, at least, 20 gardaí.

Community policing and drug units were vitally important in how gardaí initially investigated and defeated the once notorious Dundon McCarthy criminal network that was responsible for the murders of several young criminals in Limerick City.

The gang also gunned down two innocent members of the public, Shane Geoghegan, who was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2008, and Roy Collins, a businessman whose family had given evidence against the Dundon gang in a criminal trial, in April 2009.

The senior source warned that other specialised units are also “unfortunately coming under the microscope” under the commissioner’s plans.

“It is horrendous and we don't know where it is going to end,” they said.

Meanwhile, Garda Thornton described present resources as “threadbare” and that Gardai “are experiencing major difficulty in trying to deliver a policing service, feeling exhausted and worn”.

When asked for comment, a Garda Headquarters spokeswoman said it is liaising with the Limerick Garda Division and would reply in due course.