When policing is influenced by parish-pump politics

The argument that Garda stations had been a deterrent to crime when they were in operation does not stand up, writes Micheal Clifford

Which rural or urban Garda stations are about to be re-opened? Go on, have a guess. On Tuesday, the Government agreed guidelines for a process aimed at reopening six of the 139 stations that have closed since 2011.

Ostensibly, this is being presented as an exercise in revisiting what was one of the more controversial policy decisions of the last government. The big question now is which areas will be the lucky recipients of this latest policy initiative.

My own humble few bob is going on the station in the village of Stepaside, south Co Dublin. So sure am I of this wager that I would be willing to take out a loan from my local credit union and put the full wad on it.

This whole policy initiative is contained in the programme for government, agreed between Fine Gael and the various independents who have pledged to serve.

The closure of the stations generated major controversy in various corners of rural Ireland. Understandably, many saw the closures as the latest manifestation of the abandonment of rural Ireland.

In this regard the principal effect of the closures was psychological.

This is significant, and not to be ignored, but it is not a good reason to keep open stations that were originally designed in the latter half of the 19th century.

Things have moved on from the horse and cart, for both criminals and law enforcement. Good policing demanded a more centralised force, availing of proper transport to police the whole State.

There were understandable fears that while the bricks and mortar policing was being decommissioned, it would not be replaced with an adequate alternative. The jury is still out on that.

But the notion that the stations had been a deterrent to crime when they were in operation simply does not stand up. We were told that rural Ireland was being subjected to rampant crime by gangs of sophisticated burglars.

Yet these professional criminals, the line went, were deterred by a small station opened for a few hours a day and staffed, more often than not, by a single officer.

The stats didn’t bear it out either. There was an increase in burglaries through the worst years of the recession but four-fifths of that was attributable to crime occurred in the large towns and cities.

Despite all that, the closures became a hot political topic, and so a great vehicle for some politicians. Step forward Shane Ross, TD for Dublin Rathdown.

Ross was to the fore in protesting against the closure of the Stepaside station in his constituency. In the Dáil last year he claimed there had been an “epidemic of burglaries” in Stepaside since the station closed down in 2013.

“We don’t need Garda responses to burglary,” he said. “We want Garda prevention of burglary.” There were media reports of an increase in burglaries from 419 in the last quarter of 2012 to 595 in the corresponding period in 2015. These numbers, however, were for the division rather than the immediate Stepaside district.

During the election, Ross plastered the area with posters calling for the re- opening of the station. At an election rally, he spoke passionately about the need to reopen the station, while his constituency rival Alan Shatter delivered a more considered analysis of the situation that was long on reason, yet short of Ross’s emotion.

Ross had a good election, being returned to the Dáil on a ticket of attacking crony capitalism and promising to usher in a new way of doing politics.

Then he found himself with his Independent Alliance group in Government, putting his feet under the desk of the Minister for Transport, Tourism, and Sport. And guess what?

The programme for government contained a pledge to reopen five stations on a pilot basis with a view to examining whether they — or even more stations — should be reopened on a permanent basis. On Tuesday, the justice minister received approval for the move at Cabinet.

Is Stepaside one of the favoured stations? What do you think?

The smart money says Ross insisted on this concession for his constituency if he was to join government. And being a man who was smashing the old way of doing things, he couldn’t very well be blatant about the issue.

Instead, the Cabinet was forced to go through the ruse of pretending that this is some sort of considered examination of how best to do policing in the interests of all.

Of course, the final decision will be up to the Garda Commissioner, but she does not live on Mars and will be well aware of what is expected of her.

If this was a genuine attempt to revisit decisions made during the last administration, it would have been quite simple to do such a probe without stipulating that a minimum number of stations be opened.

But it is nothing of the sort. At least back in the day when Independent TDs hoovered up goodies for their constituency in payment for supporting a government, nobody pretended it was anything else.

In this case, everybody is keeping a straight face, letting on that it is not a simple case of parish-pump politics to facilitate a minister who pledged that he would lead the charge in doing things differently.