Criminal violence - Empty words mean nothing to gangland

THERE is a strong whiff of knee-jerk political reaction about the Government’s response to the crime crisis gripping the country.

It will require more than ministerial assurances to assuage the fears of citizens increasingly uneasy over the dramatic escalation of gun murders and the low conviction rate, as highlighted by the Irish Examiner.

Our report last week revealed that, between 1998 and 2006, there were 109 gun murders of which 54 were detected and 35 went to court. But only 18 or one-in-six of those ended in convictions, a shockingly low 17% success rate.

In the aftermath of Monday’s fatal shooting of 22-year-old James Purdue in the troubled Dublin suburb of Coolock, the fifth gun murder there this year, Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday briefed the Cabinet on the fight against organised crime.

A worried public was assured by Mr McDowell, who, in turn, was assured by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, that resources were not the problem.

Indeed, the commissioner promised that the campaign against those suspected of involvement in organised crime would intensify in the coming weeks.

But what the public wants to know is where the problem lies if it is not one of resources? Merely to blame it on a small, desperate and disparate group — as Mr McDowell has done — is not good enough.

After all, we are talking here, in drug terms alone, about a black economy worth €1bn.

In reality, even though the strength of the force has been increased, its personnel are stretched to the limit. At present, the only way to intensify the war against crime is by increasing overtime, so that additional manpower can be deployed.

As things stand, according to one seasoned observer, many gardaí are burned out, a scenario which underlines the urgency of recruiting extra personnel.

Undeniably, more gardaí could be released from desk work if the controversial garda reserve, made up of citizens, was up and running, as Mr McDowell promised yesterday, when briefed the Oireactas Justice Committee on the progress of the reserve plan. Regulations will be finalised next month and recruitment of the first of 4,000 reserve personnel will begin in August, according to Mr McDowell.

However, deep divisions remain over the planned reserve group which has the backing of senior management but is bitterly opposed both by rank and file members and garda sergeants and inspectors — who refused to co-operate with yesterday’s committee hearing because it was a live industrial relations issue.

The phenomenon of gun murder is not new and has long been anticipated by leading gardaí. Five years ago the Criminal Assets Bureau warned that a new and extremely vicious breed of young criminal with a Mafia code of silence was already filling the void after the drug barons were smashed.

Alarmingly, the stark result was 21 gun murders last year and 12 so far this year. Against that bleak backdrop, the public want more effective strategies to crack down on crime — not political promises.