Community gardaí numbers have halved, policing review finds
THE Garda Inspectorate has said the number of community gardaí has halved – with large reductions in rural areas.
Ireland’s community gardaí have previously been praised by European police forums; however, a new report has shown that some Garda districts have no dedicated community policing in place at all.
The much-anticipated report, entitled Policing With Local Communities, also found that communities have noticed a decrease in garda visibility.
The report reveals that the force has an insufficient understanding of the demand for its services, and that it is unclear how many gardaí it needs to police the State – and when and where they should be allocated. Furthermore, it revealed there are not enough members of the gardaí on duty at the times when they are most needed. Victims of crime and local communities are also affected by gardaí being taken away for other duties – such as escorting prisoners.
The Garda Inspectorate spent the last two years reviewing how local policing services are planned and organised, and how services are allocated.
Chief Inspector Mark Toland, speaking at the publication of the report yesterday, said: ‘The Garda Síochána do many things well and their strong community ethos was reflected throughout this inspection, and forms a strong foundation to develop a more structured and consistent approach to preventing harm in communities.’
Some of the key findings of the report included an insufficient understanding of demand for policing services and the absence of an intelligence-led strategic planning process. It was also found the gardaí is well behind other comparable services in how it uses technology and data to help it measure and manage demand, allocate resources and improve its service to the public.
And the model used to distributed resources does not determine how many staff a division needs to match its policing demands, the report found.
It said that while gardaí have a strong community ethos, and do many things well, they need to develop a more structured and consistent approach to policing.
The inspectorate found gardaí do not fully understand the demand for their services and are unclear of what the right mix should be of gardaí and reserves to police the State.
Speaking following the publication of the report, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said: ‘I am pleased to publish today the report of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, Policing With Local Communities.
‘The report is broad and detailed and it will be carefully studied by my department. I also intend to refer the report to the Garda Commissioner, for his consideration as a resource to assist in his leadership of the organisation.’
The investigation which led to the publication of the report examined how Garda staff are allocated and deployed.
A number of recommendations have been made following the publication of the report including that local policing should be managed within a divisional structure that does not retain district constraints that affect the delivery of local policing services.
Other recommendations were, firstly, the development of a new resource-allocation process that assigns resources to Garda units based on policing needs; and secondly, recognising concerns about crime in rural communities, and the development of a multi-agency rural crime prevention and reassurance partnership.
Thirdly, the report also recommended the development of a community policing model with resources in all divisions trained in problem-solving to tackle issues that matter to local communities.
‘Well behind other services’