Gardaí called over ‘bus passenger eating cheese and onion crisps'

Extra.ie​

05-05-2025

Gardaí have called for better scrutiny of dispatching after officers refused to respond to a call complaining that someone was eating a packet of crisps on a bus.
Last week at the annual Garda Representative Association (GRA) conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry, gardaí urged more 'triaging' of calls before officers are sent out.
A motion put to its delegates, which was later passed by an overwhelming majority, called for the Garda Commissioner to implement 'a Garda call-answering policy that properly identifies whether the call for service made to An Garda Síochána is appropriate for a policing response or another service to deal with'. Tayto Cheese and Onion. Pic: Tesco
Other callouts officers have responded to include incidents involving a 'suicidal dog', as well as birds' nests in people's homes, gardaí said.
GRA representative Peter Firth told Extra.ie that some calls officers have been dispatched to attend in recent times have been 'laughable'. 'We have a very weak policy in relation to the Garda decision-making model, due to the level of oversight and fear of discipline,' he said.
'People are very slow to cancel calls because gardaí are worried that a member of the public might complain or that someone in management might perceive a call that we didn't attend as one we should have.
Again it's a fear of discipline.' He added: 'We are getting calls that are never a policing matter and they're being responded to by An Garda Síochána. Sometimes those responses are absolutely laughable. Other callouts officers have responded to include incidents involving a 'suicidal dog', as well as birds' nests in people's homes, gardaí said. Pic: Shutterstock
'We have definitely received calls to respond to people eating crisps on a bus. What happened was that there was someone on a bus eating a packet of cheese and onion, causing annoyance to another member of the public because of the smell.
'There was another one where a couple of lads in the southeast were sent because a neighbour called and said she was concerned about a young bird's nest in someone's house and that they might not have been able to get out because the people were on holidays.' He said that 'because we're not declining those calls, the requests become more acceptable over time'. 'It becomes its own monster.
The reason they are sent to gardaí is that the members in the control room have to make the decision and they have no faith in the policy that they won't be disciplined,' he added. 'Finite resources are being used for us to be dragged to things that are not Garda issues.' Garda Dan Ryan, who is stationed in the Carlow area, described how his colleagues were called out to deal with a dog 'whose owner thought he was suicidal'. A Dublin bus parked. Pic: Shutterstock
He said: 'Currently, there's no triage policy with the control room. For example, we recently dispatched to a call where a person rang in believing that her dog was suffering from mental health problems and the dog, her dog, was going to take his own life.' He said that 'we have to go to everything', adding: 'We had to go speak with this lady. I wouldn't say we spoke with the dog.'
In a statement, Garda HQ commented: 'Community policing is the provision of a policing service to the whole community, both urban and rural, through a partnership-based, proactive, problemsolving style of policing. It is focused on community engage – ment, crime prevention and law enforcement and addresses crime and policing quality-of-life issues affecting communities.'