Some roads gardaí ‘show little interest’
A report carried out by consultants into garda Road Policing Units (RPUs) has found “significant differences in policing practice and productivity” among the force’s divisions.
Consulting firm Crowe said that its findings highlighted “a lack of effective supervision of RPUs and the inability (or unwillingness) of supervisors and more senior ranks to proactively supervise and manage the performance and productivity of RPU members”.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said that the report made for “stark reading”.
While the consultants stressed that the majority of the RPU members had a positive attitude and aimed to be effective and productive, they also encountered members who appeared to show “little interest” in detecting road-traffic offences.
Consultants ‘quite shocked’
There were also, according to , “a small number” who volunteered that they disliked their job and were eagerly looking forward to retirement, as well as “a small number” who seemed disinterested in the fact that their ANPR equipment was switched off or not functioning properly.
The report said that its team was “quite shocked” that, in a small number of instances, the RPU members concerned “were quite open about their lack of interest in being seen to fulfil their duty”.
“We also found it disturbing that those members who told us how much they disliked their job had no difficulty in raising these issues in front of external consultants engaged specifically by An Garda Síochána to review how roads policing operates,” the report added.
The Crowe report said that the reliability of ANPR (automatic number-plate recognition) equipment appeared to have been a contributing factor to the productivity issue, finding that the system was either not working or took a long time to activate properly in around 30% of the vehicles in which its team accompanied RPU members.
‘Review PALF policy’
The consultants also reported “considerable frustration’ among RPU supervisors, who felt that they could do “little or nothing” to address situations in which some RPU members were avoiding doing productive work.
The report attributed this to supervisors’ interpretation of a garda performance-assessment policy called PALF, which excludes the use of “numeric targets focused at individual level”.
Crowe called for an immediate review of the PALF policy and its replacement with “a more appropriate policy” that allowed the force to manage the performance of its staff.
Court business
The consultants also reported “a commonly expressed desire” among RPU members for better management of the business of the District Courts.
The report said that the requirement for RPU members to attend court often involved lengthy periods waiting for a case to be called, limiting the time available for frontline policing operations.
Crowe also reported “significant frustration” about the reduced strength of RPUs at a time when road-traffic fatalities had been rising in recent years.
On 31 October last year, there were 623 gardaí serving in RPUs – down 40% compared with 2009.
In a statement, Harris said that the force had allocated an extra 49 gardaí to roads policing in the past year and would allocate more in the second half of this year.
He added that, as recommended by the report, a steering group to oversee the necessary changes identified in the report had been set up, as well as a working group to implement the measures.