Some Gardaí in roads policing are described as “unproductive” and “demotivated” in an independent review.
The Crowe report was commissioned by An Garda Síochána in February 2024 and published in April 2025 after site visits to six divisions and data analysis.
Supervisors told reviewers a minority of members do “the bare minimum or less” with examples of patrol cars parked out of sight and shifts ending with no detections. The review found productivity often depends on individual work ethic and interest.
Some members openly said they disliked the job and were “eagerly looking forward to retirement,” according to the report.
Supervisors reported they felt unable to tackle poor performance because of how the PALF policy is interpreted.
The report says there was “considerable frustration” among supervisors who believed “there is little or nothing” they could do, with some saying “in effect, no supervising was taking place.”
It adds that managers were apprehensive that trying to impose sanctions would cause industrial relations problems with the GRA.
The review highlights supervisory gaps, including unsupervised shifts and cases where supervisors lacked the qualifications to drive RPU vehicles.
On equipment, Crowe observed non‑functioning ANPR systems and noted that in roughly 30% of vehicles they accompanied, ANPR did not work or was slow to activate.
Reviewers also recorded one instance where a driver appeared to obscure the forward‑facing ANPR camera.
The fleet was described as ageing and high‑mileage, with 41% of patrol vehicles over 200,000km and 39% more than six years old in the six divisions visited.
Staffing has fallen sharply, with 623 Gardaí in RPUs as of 31 October 2024 – a 40% reduction from 1,046 in 2009. Vacancies and leave patterns sometimes left no RPU unit operating at the busiest times.
Much of RPU deployment was built around checkpoints, which the report says form the “centrepiece” of day‑to‑day operations.
The report says RPUs did not generally prioritise proactive interdiction of criminal activity on the roads and rarely received intelligence‑led briefings focused on wider crime.
Training issues were cited across divisions, including an over‑reliance on e‑learning and delays in driver training that left some members unable to operate lights and sirens.
The review recommends an immediate overhaul of PALF and the creation of a senior‑led project team to deliver a transformation plan within eight weeks.
Productivity differences between divisions were also documented, with one division 57% more productive than the lowest‑rated division for lifesaver detections in 2023.
The report situates the review against a backdrop of rising road fatalities between 2018 and 2023, with a slight reduction in 2024, according to the Road Safety Authority.