Garda bosses urge public to engage with local stations

Irish Examiner

17 hours ago

Garda bosses have moved to reassure people that they should continue to call their local Garda station, whether it just to report concerns, seek advice, or request a response to an incident.
The development follows an Oireachtas committee hearing earlier this week where government and opposition politicians — from Cork, Galway, the border, and Dublin — raised concerns about Garda visibility and responses to calls for help.
The Oireachtas justice committee was conducting a session with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and his two deputy commissioners Shawna Coxon and Justin Kelly.
Specific concerns were raised at the committee by Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Bay North, Tom Brabazon, who criticised what he said was a 'new policy' where all members of the public were being told to ring 999 for a Garda response, rather than their local station.
He said this was 'not working' as many people thought 999 was only for emergencies and not for calls about anti-social behaviour or 'quality of life' issues.
Garda HQ issued a lengthy video on Friday urging people to ring their local station if they feel they need to, even if they do not think it is in relation to a serious crime.
Speaking in the video, Assistant Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region, Paul Cleary, said: 'I want to reassure the public that our local garda stations are also accessible, including by phone, and we want the public to continue to contact their local station.'
He said this contact played 'a vital role' in the organisation's service to local communities.
'Around 60% of all calls to local Garda stations are not actually calls for service requiring Garda assistance at an incident,' he said.
'They are people reaching out for information, advice, highlighting local concerns and seeking reassurance and connection and it's very important that we retain this contact.
'So we would encourage people to continue to engage with your local Garda station.
"If your call does require a Garda attendance at an incident it will be forwarded immediately to the Regional Control Centre for triage and dispatch.'
Mr Cleary said that the force's four regional control centres — in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Galway — received 1.2m calls from the public in 2024.
He pointed out that 38% of these calls were transferred from local Garda stations as part of the Garda's Call Safe Garda management system.
He said this system seeks to ensure that An Garda Síochána handles emergency and urgent calls consistently, allowing frontline members to respond faster and with greater accuracy.
Mr Cleary said: 'I am aware of some recent commentary regarding Garda response times to calls for service, and I want to take this opportunity to clarify the position with accurate information from the independent Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS).
'Since the launch of Garda Safe, our call answer times have improved across our regional control centres by up to 20% and the average time taken to answer calls in the regional control centres is now 17 seconds.
"The time spent on these calls averages is just over two minutes. We have specially trained Garda safe call takers and dispatchers who can quickly assess the situation and provide the right response.'
He finished by saying: 'I would like to be clear, if there is an emergency or if you need immediate Garda assistance, you should always call 999 or 112. This is the quickest route to getting the emergency policing service you need.'
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