Most rank and file Gardaí won’t publicly acknowledge that they find their job difficult, but it looks tough enough to the rest of us. A lot of their time seems to be spent dealing with people who are hostile, or inebriated, or violent, or all three, and it must get very wearing at times.
Violent crime is increasing – with rates of domestic abuse, rape, and assault climbing, as are the numbers of robberies, extortions and hijackings, while shoplifting is through the roof.
Anyone who has been in Dublin city centre lately will tell you there’s a heightened tension about the place that Gardaí have to deal with every day. We may deplore the inevitable outcomes of drug addiction, violent crime, general lawlessness, and public disorder, but we do so mostly at a safe distance.
Ramming garda cars is no longer an infrequent sport: nowadays cheered on by gangs of teenagers who seem to think Gardaí represent an authority that they despise, partly because of the complex and tangled resentments that arise when the state fails its most disadvantaged citizens.
A scan of some of the most recent news reports are a reminder of just how dangerous the beat can be these days.
“Unprovoked attack’ leaves garda with serious facial injuries in Dublin” was one August headline. “Gardaí attacked as they investigated break-in at troubled teens care home,” was another from last week – while news like this has become increasingly common: “Two gardaí in hospital after patrol car rammed in suspected ‘targeted’ attack”.
“Teen in stolen car led 10 garda cars on 40 minute high speed chase and crashed into roundabout” has a familiar ring to it at this stage – as does “Van driver ‘dragged garda 20m’ before high-speed chase, court hears”.
The thrill of the chase, I imagine, has worn off long ago for Gardaí, for whom this is just another danger in the workplace that hi-viz jackets and hard hats can’t help with.
The trend in the news headlines is backed up by the hard data: last year, according to the Garda Commissioner, member of the force were unable to provide more than 60,000 days of service year due to injuries sustained while on the beat.
Resignations are at an all-time high, and morale is on the floor – which doesn’t bode well for promises from the Minister for Justice to beef up Garda presence in Dublin city centre and elsewhere.
Given all of that, it must really rankle when, at times, it seems that their own organisation is also determined to make life as difficult as it can for Gardaí who are just trying to do their job.
Mick O’Toole in the Irish Mirror reported yesterday that a garda is under investigation because, in a response to a ‘priority-one call’, he drove an official Garda car to the scene.
Garda under investigation for driving force vehicle to respond to armed incident https://t.co/DEmee8cw18
— Michael O’Toole (@mickthehack) January 25, 2024
The Mirror said that “the uniformed officer is now under disciplinary investigation” and that their career is “potentially on the line” because of the incident which took place in April of last year. The independent policing watchdog GSOC is investigating “alleged neglect of duty”.
A priority one call is code for an armed incident, so the kind of situation where, you’d assume, an immediate response is required. The issue seems to be that the officer in question did not have “a specialist driving qualification, known as CBD2 which allows officers to use sirens and blue lights to respond to emergencies”.
This seems entirely absurd. It was an emergency – potentially a life-threatening one – and the garda reacted to provide assistance. But now that garda’s career is on the line.
One source told the Mirror that Gardaí are shocked by the decision to open up a disciplinary investigation and said:
“Nobody wants to get in trouble just for doing our job. What are gardaí supposed to do? Should we just ignore a major incident that comes on the radio because we are only CBD1? I don’t think the people of Ireland would accept us doing that. This is a disaster.”
Well, precisely. Gardaí have rules and regulations to follow just like the rest of us in the workplace, and there have obviously been times when discipline was and is required, but this situation seems preposterous.
The problem is that this sort of overreach doesn’t seem to be happening in isolation.
A garda is now set to face trial for dangerous driving after he was involved in a pursuit of three members of a burglary gang in south Dublin in 2021.
Gardaí say they are dealing with an increasing number of incidents of suspects driving the wrong way down motorways or dual carriageways in an effort to escape. In almost all circumstances, safety protocols mean pursuing gardaí are required to call off a chase once a car enters the motorway on the wrong side.
“They know we can’t chase them and they are taking advantage of that,” said one garda. “If we do give chase we are the ones facing discipline,” the Irish Times reported.
And last week, we learned that “a garda was suspended for three years after he provided an elderly, isolated man with an unclaimed bicycle for transport during the pandemic.”
In June 2020 gardaí from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) raided the home of the garda, who is nearing the end of an “exemplary” career. The elderly man’s home was visited by the NBCI and the bicycle was retrieved.
The garda had only given the bicycle to the man a few weeks earlier, but had failed to fill out the necessary paperwork, it is understood.
Can that response be described as anything but heavy-handed? The garda’s home was raided because he failed to fill out paperwork and tried to help and elderly man. Apart from anything else it seems like a waste of Garda time.
Again, obviously the rules dictating Garda behaviour are very important, and transparency and accountability is required for any police force. But in some of these cases, it seems that the law is now being used to help the perpetrators of crimes – and that Gardaí are being punished for simply trying to do their jobs.
President of the Garda Representative Association, Brendan O’Connor said the issue of a member facing a possible career loss because they responded to a serious incident was an example of “disproportionate oversight, a lack of clarity and, as always, a complete deficit in essential training”.
The “default response” from GSOC and Garda Management, he said was to blame individual Gardaí who “are put in an impossible situation and face investigation with the possibility of sanction for adhering to their fundamental duty to protect life and property.”
If we make it impossible for Gardaí to carry out basic duties without a fear of disproportionate disciplinary procedures – then we can expect, not just lowered morale, but a exodus from the force. At a time when Minister Helen McEntee is promising us more officers on the street, Gardaí will be leaving in droves.