MEET WEXFORD’S NEW GARDA CHIEF INTERVIEW
CO WEXFORD’S NEW CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT, TYRONE MAN PADDY McMENAMIN HAS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ROAD TRAFFIC, DRUGS AND IMPROVING SYSTEMS WITHIN THE DIVISION IN HIS SIGHTS, WRITES DAVID LOOBY
How long have you been a guard and what was your first post?
I am with An Garda Siochana since 1986. My first station was in north Dublin which was very enjoyable. We had a lot of challenges absolutely, but it was an excellent place to work. That experience of working with locations and people has endured to this day. I was superintendent in Kevin Street which was a unique place, with a lot of social problems. It had a big tourist trade and a lot of rejuvenation going on. The community played an important role. I was there for over three years. I had spent quite a bit of my time in Pearse Street also so it was inner city policing. Most of my career was spent in frontline policing. You don’t go through 32 years without getting involved in a lot of stuff.
I was superintendent in Mullingar for three years before Kevin Street so country policing isn’t new to me.
Do you think the scandals involving An Garda Siochana members has damaged trust in the force?
We have come through a difficult time. There was a lot of challenges and there will always be challenges for a police force. We have seen recruitment has been up and running for a few years and the Wexford division has benefited. New people bring new optimism and new hope for the rest of the organisation.
There has been a lot of change, with new leadership and a new change in culture and a lot of those things will contribute in different ways to our future. While sometimes change can be hard to take, I welcome the changes. Every organisation needs changes and An Garda Siochana is no different,
Trust is vital. Despite the challenges that we have gone through, by and large the trust in the community is really high in An Garda Siochana and that is down to the men and women of An Garda Siochana going above and beyond and the communities do see the value they get from their local guard. In my short time in Wexford I see a critical bond between the guards and the community, there is a lot of work that isn’t seen involving various community and members.
What is the role today of An Garda Siochana?
The Garda has many roles within a community. They are certainly an integral part of the community. Our primary role is responding to criminality and the protection to life and property. Underneath that a lot of work is done in relation to the social aspect of a policeman or a police woman’s job. Policing is a very dangerous job.
Fortunately there is still a lot of respect out there for guards even from criminals and working in Dublin’s inner city (where the Hutch and Kinihan gangs were active) you were dealing with hardened criminals. Every one of them, by and large, were respectful of gardaí.
There has been criticism of how long it takes new recruits to come on stream. Is this fair?
Policing is unique and for the sake of expediency I don’t think we should cut back on our training programme, it’s very comprehensive. When they leave Templemore they are still subject to training here. They have a probationary period but I think all of that is necessary. We owe it those new recruits who do have a difficult and dangerous job that they do get the best training. They do have their full police powers and are on a probationary period for two years here but after a number of weeks they are after their learning phase they move in to roles.
What are the main changes you have seen within the force in recent years?
In the lifetime of my own career we have seen changes in the way we deal with domestic violence. Rightly so we see it as a serious offence and it isn’t always left to the victim to make a statement, the services that are there a available to them. The way that we deal with everything now is different. We are a victim centred organisation. We have a victim support unit. A lot of the time in the past it was felt the victim wasn’t the most important person in the criminal justice system.
Policing has become much more complicated as you have technology playing a big role in crime and all these roles require specialisation. We do have a designated examiner of computers for evidence in the division and protective services roles will be rolled out divisionally where a specialist will be trained in domestic violence and child abuse cases. Our economic crime bureau is looking at people who can commit serious crimes from a keyboard. We are no different to any other place in the world so we have to rise to the challenge. With online bullying people are now beginning to realise the difficulties that is having for particularly young people. We have school programmes through our juvenile liaisons who have been bringing this to young people, to recognise the inherent dangers in that and the warning signs. It is a reality of the modern world, people have so much access now to internet in their pockets.
What would you say to criticism of a perceived lack of availability of gardaí in rural areas?
We have a large network of garda stations in County Wexford; some of them are manned on limited opening hours. Here we have a divisional headquarters which is open 24/7. I can understand the frustrations of people who are looking for their local guard for a localised issue and they can’t get them. In relation to an emergency that would come in through a 999 system or through Wexford Garda Station. If someone has a difficulty in getting a response we have New Ross, Enniscorthy and Gorey so there is 24 hour cover so while the stations might necessarily been manned there are patrols out.
Does the garda traffic corps and drug squad need to be better resourced?
There have been increases in traffic corps’ members and we plan to increase it further in the near future. On a national level traffic corps and drug units were reduced. We have a small number of drugs personnel here and as we get more probationary gardai in we will be able to increase those numbers as I am very cognisant that a lot of crime and be related back to drugs and addiction.
We have come from a stage where resources did take a hit. We are getting back to where we’d like to be. We will never ever have enough resources. It’s about the service. I will never be satisfied with the number of guards I have of these are complaints coming in about the service were providing. Are we there yet, we’re probably not. Will we always be able to get to someone’s door within 15 minutes, it depends on the priority of the call.
I will be happy when we are not getting complaints about a garda taking too long or not responding. If you want to ask me how it features at the moment I am not here long enough to respond but I do get the feeling here that the is a very high satisfaction rate with the guards
IF YOU LOOK AT THE NEW WEXFORD GARDA STATION IT’S CERTAINLY AN IMPOSING BUILDING WHICH SENDS A MESSAGE THAT WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT POLICING
here and I would have to pay tribute to my predecessor chief superintendent John Roche and his team and I recognise that I have a very good base to come in and it has made my job very easy.
Are you impressed with the new station?
This is one of three stateof-the-art stations that have opened. I do think it’s brilliant for the people who are working in it. People deserve a reasonable standard of facility to work in if you are going to provide a professional service to the community then you require a professional base to work out of. I think it’s only right for the community.
It’s not just a garda station for the guards. We know the issues that have arisen around communities losing their local garda station. It’s much more than just a building that in local communities, it’s a focal point. If you look at this building it’s certainly an imposing building which sends a message that we are serious about policing. For the people who are unfortunate enough to be brought in here under arrest and they are entitled to state-of-the-art detention facilities here. I never worked in the old station but there’s no comparison to what we have here. It certainly wasn’t fit for purpose.’
How important is it to have a positive atmosphere at work?
With An Garda Siochana, like any organisation, it’s important that they have great camaraderie and it think there is always that good camaraderie which is important for the membership to have that. It’s still there. We are fortunate now that we have a lot of good support services for people who might find themselves working on difficult cases that they didn’t have 20, 30 years ago.
How much of a challenge is resourcing the policing of a port like Rosslare Europort?
It is certainly a pivotal part of policing in Wexford. Like any port there are challenges. Any point of entry or exit there are challenges. We are continually looking at meeting those challenges and reviewing what we are doing.
What are your key priorities?
We have our own divisional policing plan. Our main objective as a policing organisation is protection of people and property and in everything we do that should be our priority. Rural burglaries, for example, thankfully have dropped thanks to Operation Thor and we are seeing a reduction, but that is of little consolation to people who have been burgled.
Crimes against the person like robberies do have an impact on people so my priority is to do what I can to reduce those incidences.
Assaults are high and we can’t reduce those. We need the public to come on board with us. We need people to be responsible with alcohol as many assaults are alcohol fuelled. As the economy grows and things are getting good and people are going back out again, and that is to be welcomed. The downside of that is sometimes you can see a rise in public order and assaults; it’s how we deal with those and with the victims of those.
It’s about ensuring the incidents of those serious crimes are reduced and when those crimes do occur we have to ensure we support the victims of those crimes and put all the resources we can into investigating those crimes because every burglary, robbery, assault we prevent, that’s one less victim.
How much time are garda spending on domestic violence and mental health issues?
With domestic violence now, there are different make ups of families. It’s not just husband and wife, it can be son, daughter, relatives, co-habiting couples involved. Nationally it’s something the organisation is taking very seriously and supporting the victims of domestic violence that they don’t have to live as prisoners in their own homes. We hope to be able to reduce it and that people will report it. When they do come forward they will be treated with respect and dignity.
How difficult is the job of the Garda in the court dock new technical defences?
That has always been the way. From what I know here there is a very good relationship between ourselves and the legal profession side.
We recognise that the legal profession have to do their job and do it well. They are entitled to defend their clients and were not going to hold that against them.
What are the most important qualities of a guard?
That’s a very hard question because I’ve seen so many great gardai, but certainly you have to have time for people. We are unique in this country where police are so entwined with their communities. A lot of countries don’t have that. Certainly you have to be committed to your job and be professional.
What have been the highlights of your career to date?
The stand-out moments for me were the queen’s visit and President Obama’s visit. Those were very historic occasions and all the other stuff we get involved in, the day to day stuff are part and parcel of the job.