Rural policing: why the thin blue line is now on the verge of snapping

Two frontline gardaí, James Morrisroe and Brendan O’Connor ,warn of dire Brexit consequences for policing

ONE only has to recall the foot and mouth and BSE crises a number of years ago to get an idea of the logistics involved in policing a hard Border.

In these instances, hundreds of gardaí were temporarily transferred on a rolling basis from around the country to the Border region.

That was a temporary solution to a temporary problem. A hard Border as a result of Brexit will be permanent.

There is recognition within some quarters that gardaí must be community based. We can only effectively police for the community, from within the community, with the support of the community. And yet, community policing has been dismantled.

The much-heralded smart policing model championed by some has been an unmitigated disaster.

The simple fact is that at the moment there are not enough Garda members to effectively police the large rural area surrounding the Border. We are at breaking point and at times are struggling to respond to incidents.

This is through no fault of the overworked, demoralised, under-resourced garda at the coalface, who is providing a fire brigade service due to the shortage of members.

A hard-Border outcome as a result of Brexit would, one imagines, certainly place an intolerable strain on the already depleted resources.

It would simply be unsustainable at current levels. For example, in west Cavan, which covers a huge rural/Border area, we now have a situation where Ballyconnell garda station, which was a few short years ago a district headquarters, is not even operating on a 24-hour basis.

The pressures and dangers associated with Border policing are also being exacerbated by historically low numbers of gardaí in Donegal.

Members are out there – day and night – facing dissidents, criminals and armed vigilantes based north of the Border.

During one shift recently, officers listened to four separate cross-Border pursuits on their radio.

Years ago it was serious criminals. Now low-level road traffic offenders are happy to risk lives because they know gardaí simply aren’t out there anymore.

There have been numerous incidents close to the Border in Strabane and Derry in recent years involving dissident republicans, which have included attempts to murder our PSNI colleagues.

Our members face the danger of coming across these people and they are being left isolated – working in this environment with less backup than ever-before.

Ten years ago, when such incidents were fewer and there were more gardaí, we could scramble members armed with Uzi sub-machine guns locally.

That capability is gone.

Community policing – the most effective policing of all – has been completely compromised as local management tries to cover over the cracks by moving gardaí from one station to another.

Rural communities are having their gardaí removed to bigger stations on a daily basis – often just to keep one patrol car on the move.

North Inishowen, for example, had an excellent model that delivered effective community policing. That model simply cannot function with members from some of the stations involved now being transferred temporarily to Buncrana just to keep that station and patrol car operational.

It is a similar situation from Malin Head to Bundoran, including the Fanad Peninsula and the Gaeltachts of west Donegal. The visible presence of locally based gardaí as stakeholders in communities is under serious threat.

It is a similar situation in relation to specialist units within Donegal who are there to provide specific skills to support response policing and provide follow-up to more serious incidents or ongoing issues affecting communities. Detective, drugs, traffic and scenes of crime units have haemorrhaged experienced personnel and in some cases ceased to exist.

The members who are trying to provide a policing service to Border-based communities do so under extreme pressure due to the cumulative effects of years of lack of investment.

Staffing levels have been reduced to levels where it is a struggle to keep cars mobile and responding to calls. Members are being exposed to unacceptable risks, often working alone in isolated locations with little or no backup available.

The fleet of vehicles at their disposal is inappropriate and lacks the capacity to patrol the terrain of some parts or protect them from violent prisoners.

The downgrading of specialist units has placed even more pressure on over-stretched frontline staff, who have neither the time nor the appropriate training to carry out functions being assigned to them.

Frontline members are enforcing legislation that they have received no training in due to financial cutbacks with on-the-job training being cancelled for many years during the recession.

Any suggestion that gardaí have any capacity to provide additional policing functions as a result of Brexit is fanciful. The members we represent are struggling to provide a basic policing service under increasingly difficult circumstances. Any commitment to Border security or immigration will have to be funded through huge investment and training, otherwise the thin blue line, which is hanging by a thread, will snap. James Morrisroe is GRA representative for Cavan/ Monaghan and Brendan O’Connor is GRA representative for Donegal