Latest news with #PeterFirth
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Spooks: Series 1 Episode 1
Skip to main content Go back to home page Home Live TV Shows Movies ABC News ABC Kids Categories Mystery Thriller Cult Favourite Spooks takes us into the thrilling world of M.I.5 - known to insiders simply as 'Five' - the clandestine security service, and the people who make up the elite team. Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner, Esther Hall, Heather Cave, Hugh Simon, Greame Mearns
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Police 'sent to stop bus after passenger refused to put packet of cheese and onion crisps away'
Police in Ireland were reportedly sent to stop a bus after a passenger refused to put away a packet of cheese and onion crisps. A woman on board the bus in Galway put a call in to the cops to complain about the smell of the crisps, according to the Irish Mirror. She was reportedly left furious that another passenger was eating the snack on the bus and refused to put them away. The passenger then bizarrely rang the police before the call taker directed two members of the force to go and investigate. But the officers refused. 'The garda who took the call was directed to stop the bus and board it, but he refused as he did not believe it was a criminal matter,' a source said, as per Dublin Live. The incident came during the week of the annual conference in Killarney, Co Kerry, of the 11,200-strong Garda Representative Association. The association, which represents members of the force, heard claims that police are being sent to pointless calls – because of fears there would be complaints if they did not attend. The conference heard that along with the crisp incident, officers had also recently been sent out to deal with a suicidal dog and a bird's nest. Garda Dan Ryan, who represents officers in Carlow, said: 'Currently, there's no triage policy with the Control Room. 'We recently got dispatched to a call where a person rang in believing that her dog was suffering from mental health problems and was going to take his own life. 'Yet this was sent to us to deal with given the current policy that it's a call for service. We have to go to everything'. He explained that officers had to go and speak to the owner and voiced concerns around members of the police force being taken out of action to deal with calls of this nature. 'You would receive calls like this quite occasionally, not specifically about suicidal dogs, but like kind of silly calls like those. 'There was another one there recently in south Kerry where someone rang in because there was a pheasant hanging around in a pub car park. 'It's a wild bird. What are we supposed to do there?, he asked.' And Garda Peter Firth, from Waterford, also told the conference that there was a fear of cancelling such calls because personnel in control rooms were worried they would be disciplined. 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'. Firth said the force are receiving calls around events which are not policing matters such as a birds nest in someone's house. 'A couple of lads in the southeast were sent because a neighbour called and said she was concerned about young birds' nest in someone's house and that they might not have been able to get out because the people were on holidays. 'Because we're not declining those calls, the requests become more acceptable over time, it becomes its own monster. '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. 'There's a knock-on effect to that as well,' he said. The police said in response to queries about such calls that the force had introduced a new computer-aided dispatch system known as GardaSAFE in 2023. The force said in a statement: 'This new system enhances and improves our response and allows more efficient use of our resources thereby ensuring that the public receive the best possible response. 'GardaSAFE sees all calls requiring the dispatch of a Garda resource handled by a number of regionally located control centres. 'These control centres are staffed by trained call takers and call dispatchers. 'Community policing is the provision of a policing service to the whole community both urban and rural through a partnership based, proactive, problem solving style of policing. 'It is focused on community engagement, crime prevention and law enforcement and addresses crime and policing quality of life issues affecting communities.'
Extra.ie
05-05-2025
- Extra.ie
Gardaí called over ‘bus passenger eating cheese and onion crisps'
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 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.'
