Latest news with #PolicingandCommunitySafetyAuthority
Sunday World
01-08-2025
- Sunday World
Grieving father's disgust as report finds some gardaí ‘openly hostile' to road policing
Chair of Policing and Community Safety Authority said report found some members were 'openly hostile' to doing job. Leo Lieghio, whose daughter Marsia (16) was killed crossing the road in 2005. Pic: Gerry Mooney The father of a girl killed in a hit-and-run incident has hit out after a report found some road policing gardaí displayed a 'blatant disregard' and were 'openly hostile' to carrying out their duties. Vice president of the Irish Road Victims Association, Leo Lieghio, whose 16-year-old daughter Marsia died in 2005, said the findings reveal a 'culture of silence' amongst garda management. Leo Lieghio, whose daughter Marsia (16) was killed crossing the road in 2005. Pic: Gerry Mooney News in 90 Seconds, Friday August 1 Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said on Thursday that he received anonymous information before commissioning an examination of how roads policing operations were being carried out. Mr Lieghio told RTÉ's Morning Ireland he is requesting a meeting with Commissioner Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan in a quest for 'concrete assurances' that the failings will not be repeated. He expressed hope that incoming Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who officially assumes his role from 1 September, can make change happen. The findings of that examination were described as 'shocking' by Commissioner Harris and the chair of the Policing and Community Safety Authority, Elaine Byrne. Marsia, daughter of Leo Lieghio She said the authority had received the report in June and that it had found some members showed a 'blatant disregard' for their job, even while they knew their actions were being directly reviewed. 'They were openly hostile to doing their job,' she said, in what she described as a 'wake-up call' for An Garda Síochána. 'There are members within roads policing who seem very much uninterested in their job, and this is something that we are concerned about in terms of performance of individual guards, and it's something that the previous authority have looked upon, and the current authority would have concerns about the absence of performance management within the gardaí,' she said after a meeting of the authority. She said the authority had also been 'shocked' by a fear of carrying out performance management among garda managers. She urged the Garda Commissioner to publish the report in due course, which Mr Harris said he would do soon. 'What I'll undertake to do is, we just do one final read through the report. I just want to be sure nobody's identifiable, and then we can issue the report,' he said. 'It did arise from anonymous correspondence that I received, obviously from a roads policing member and although anonymous, it had certainly a ring of authenticity about that.' He said he then asked for an examination of the work done by roads policing members and a working group is now going through various recommendations. 'The reason this is important is there's been a lot of focus on roads policing numbers, but also obviously, then the impact of enforcement on road deaths and seriously injured. 'It's sobering to say the least in terms of its conclusions.' The Garda Representative Association (GRA) declined to comment. Seán Canney, Minister of State with responsibility for Transport, said he was surprised to hear of the extent of the failings highlighted by the report. "From my perspective and from the perspective of the general public I need to ensure that the road safety action plan for the next three years which have put in place will be a plan that will be acted upon,' he said. Mr Canney, who said he had not yet read the report, said laws must be enforced if the roads are to be truly safer. "There's no point in us bringing in laws reducing speed limits and doing all of this kind of thing if we don't have a functional enforcement section within the Gardaí,' he also told Morning Ireland on Friday. It comes as gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) made a road safety appeal ahead of the August bank holiday weekend. A half-yearly report has been published by the RSA analysing road deaths from the beginning of this year to July 27. The findings based on an analysis of 91 road deaths show the number of people killed aged 46 to 65 has reached a six-year high. By contrast, the number of young people aged 25 and under has fallen year-on-year. A total of 27pc of road deaths occurred between the hours of 12pm and 4pm, while 26pc occurred between 8pm and 4am when when traffic tends to be lower. The greatest number of deaths were seen from Friday through Monday, while more than half (56pc) of road deaths occurred on 80kmh and 100kmh roads. A total of 95 people have died on roads this year to date, including 35 drivers, 22 pedestrians, 17 motorcyclists, eight cyclists, eight passengers and one e-scooter rider. There has been an increase in deaths among vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
Irish Daily Mirror
31-07-2025
- Irish Daily Mirror
Harris shocked by report saying some traffic Gardaí 'openly hostile' towards job
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris says he has been left shocked by a damning report that found some roads policing officers have a brazen disregard for their duties. 'It is shocking and very worrying,' the Commissioner said on Thursday - after details of the report emerged. The Garda report was presented to the independent oversight body, the Policing and Community Safety Authority, in June - and revealed that some traffic Gardaí have no interest in their specialist jobs. It was ordered by Commissioner Harris earlier this year after he received an anonymous report from a whistleblower about elements of the roads policing operation around the country. The findings of that examination have been described as "shocking" by Mr Harris and the chairwoman of the PCSA, Dr Elaine Byrne, at a public meeting in Dublin on Thursday. Dr Byrne said the authority received the report in June and said it found some Gardaí involved in roads policing showed a "blatant disregard" for their job while they knew their actions were being reviewed. "They were openly hostile to doing their job," she said in what she described as a "wake-up call" for An Garda Síochána. Drew Harris and Elaine Byrne She added: "There are members within roads policing who seem very much disinterested in their job and this is something that we are concerned about in terms of performance of individual guards. And it's something that the previous authority have looked upon and the current authority would have concerns about the absence of performance management within the Gardaí.' She said the authority was also "shocked" at a "fear" of performance management within the Gardaí. She urged the Garda Commissioner to publish the report in due course, which Mr Harris said they would do once they ensured no one is identifiable. "What I'll undertake to do is we just do one final read through the report. I just want to be sure nobody's identifiable and then we can issue the report," he said. "It did arise from anonymous correspondence that I received, obviously from a roads policing member, and although anonymous, it had certainly a ring of authenticity about that." He said he asked for an examination of the work done by roads policing members and a working group is going through various recommendations. Harris said he wants to ensure nobody in the report is identifiable The Commissioner said: "The reason this is important is there's been a lot of focus on roads policing numbers, but also obviously, then the impact of enforcement on road deaths and seriously injured. "It's sobering to say the least in terms of its conclusions. 'It is shocking and very worrying. We were not pleased to see this report and see the conclusions within it.' Get all the big crime and court stories direct to your phone on our new WhatsApp service. Sign up here. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
Irish Examiner
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Extreme online pornography 'fuelling gender violence', says Garda boss
Extreme online pornography is 'corrupting' young men into inflicting serious sexual violence on women, including in relationships, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said. Commissioner Harris said tech companies are making 'billions' from this trade, which is also driving rises in domestic violence. 'A taboo subject' The commissioner, who retires at the end of August, said greater societal awareness of the 'blight' of domestic violence was needed, adding it was really a 'taboo subject' in the country. His comments come as official figures show almost 26,900 domestic abuse calls were made to gardaí in the first five months of 2025 – around 5,370 a month, on average. It is almost on a par with 2024, which was a record year, and significantly higher than preceding years. Mr Harris highlighted his concerns about domestic and sexual violence as he reflected on his seven-year term as commissioner at his final meeting with the renamed Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA) and the challenges ahead for policing. Other areas he raised were: Cyber crime — from child sexual abuse imagery, to online fraud scams and economic crime, saying this was the 'fastest-growing area of crime' which will be fuelled by AI; Drugs trade — pointing out that there seemed to be 'no end in the appetite for drugs', and that despite huge seizures by gardaí they 'do not seem to be denting supply' or street prices, and called for public health awareness campaigns of the damage caused by drugs. Mr Harris, who raised gender violence as one of his priorities at the start of his term in September 2018, said recent court cases of domestic homicides painted a 'grim vista'. He said the home 'should be the safest place' for women, but that too many have been murdered by their intimate partner. 'It's a very, very sorry, tragic tale,' he said. He agreed with PCSA chairwoman Elaine Byrne that 'not the same attention' was placed on the murder of women compared to gangland murders, adding there were 12 domestic murders of women compared to two gangland murders in 2024. Extreme pornography Mr Harris said extreme pornography on the internet had 'normalised very violent sexual conduct' by men towards women, including in relationships. Garda figures show that 67 prosecutions for non-fatal strangulation have been taken since the offence was introduced in November 2023, some 58 of which related to domestic abuse. Mr Harris said that domestic abuse situations 'can escalate very quickly and very tragically', but said the force had invested heavily in specialist units and training of gardaí and was improving. He said there needed to be an awareness of domestic abuse as a 'real blight on our society', adding it was "really a taboo subject'. On road policing, the commissioner expressed serious concern at a recent review of roads policing, which he said showed that a 'substantial minority' of gardaí 'seem to be little interested in road policing'. Ms Byrne said it was a 'shocking report'. On behalf of the PCSA, she thanked Mr Harris for his "seven years as a public servant".
RTÉ News
31-07-2025
- RTÉ News
Report showing many roads gardaí not doing jobs 'shocking'
The chairperson of the Policing and Community Safety Authority has described as "shocking" a report which shows that a substantial number of gardaí assigned to Roads Policing are not doing their jobs and have no interest in doing them. The Garda Commissioner has promised to publish the Crowe Report which also shows that gardaí who were not carrying out their duties did not care that they were being monitored, and that their managers were not dealing with the problem. Drew Harris called their actions "brazen and contemptuous" and the report's conclusions "sobering". The disturbing details in this report emerged on the day that the gardaí launched another of its road safety campaigns. An independent review of roads policing was launched after a garda whistleblower informed garda headquarters that a substantial number of the gardaí tasked with policing the roads were not doing their jobs. The chairperson of the policing and community safety authority also pointed out that garda managers and supervisors in charge of those gardaí, were either unable, unwilling or afraid to do anything about it The chairperson of the Policing and Community Safety Authority described the report as shocking and said there are members within roads policing who seem very much disinterested in their job. The report also showed that not only were these gardaí not conducting speed checks or tests for drink and drug driving, they also did not care that they were being monitored and that their failure to do their job had been identified by the independent investigators. The chairperson Elaine Byrne also said she was not only concerned about the blatant disregard some members have, when they knew they were being reviewed by this but also about the absence of performance management. "They were in the cars with people, and they were openly hostile to doing their job," she said. "And I think once that report is published, you'll see that, but also perhaps another thing that we were shocked about is that there seem to be a deference or a fear of some management, of not actually doing performance management, and just a fear of actually being managers within guards, within Roads Policing." The Garda Commissioner called the actions of the gardaí "brazen" and "contemptuous" and said a working group had been established to implement its recommendations. He also said it was not just a matter of moving people on because the issues identified were "systemic". The findings of this report will be particularly distressing to the families of people who have lost loved ones on the roads because of speed, dangerous, drink or drug driving.
The Journal
15-06-2025
- The Journal
Gardaí have launched review into new 999 call-taking system just a year after its launch
GARDAÍ HAVE CONFIRMED that a new 999 call taking system is being reviewed to find where it is going wrong. Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon told a Dáil committee this week that a formal process to examine why 999 calls are going unanswered is underway. It comes after the Dr Elaine Byrne chair of the Policing and Community Safety Authority said that gardaí wasting time on frivolous call outs was because of an 'over-correction' in the wake of the cancelled 999 calls scandal. As revealed by The Journal previously , gardaí are facing a backlog of hundreds of calls on a daily basis across the country because there is now no triaging of calls. First reported in 2023, multiple sources said this week that the situation is unchanged. The Policing Authority carried out a major enquiry into the 999 call cancelling scandal . This identified failings in how domestic violence calls were responded. An Garda Síochána introduced a new Computer Aided Dispatch system known as 'GardaSAFE'. Along with that, members of the public calling the gardaí are directed through to 999 call lines – which means that all calls, no matter how minor, go through the emergency system. The practice came in for strong criticism from Dublin TD Tom Brabazon at a hearing of the Justice Committee. The reality of the overcorrection was laid bare in the hearing this week. Speaking at a meeting with Commissioner Drew Harris and other senior gardaí Brabazon said that the public's experience of the system 'was not a positive one'. 'People are very reluctant to ring 999, they feel that this is counter-intuitive. 999 has always been an emergency number, not necessarily for something that's potentially a quality of life issue like anti-social behavior, etc. Advertisement 'So the experience has been that people using 999 are not getting the responses that they require,' he said. Brabazon said he had a constituent who contacted him because she received no garda contact about a missing child call she made. Another constituent complained that there was no response to a criminal damage incident. 'The person rang 999 because they previously were advised by myself that was the course of action that they should take. There was no response. No gardaí showed up. 'He subsequently followed up with the local Garda station [but] the garda station had got no information on that particular incident. There was a complete gap, a complete breakdown.' In another incident Brabazon himself called gardaí last week when he witnessed an incident with a person wielding a knife which had caused significant distress to an elderly man. Brabazon said that no gardaí responded to the call after he gave the details on the 999 call line. Commissioner Harris said that the gardaí had received 'a lot of feedback not dissimilar' to what the TD had outlined following the rollout of the Gardasafe system and centralised control rooms. He confirmed there was a review underway 'to reassess this connection with the community'. 'Can I say it was done with the best of intentions in terms of having, in effect, a record, a recording of any exchanges with the public over the phone,' he said. Deputy Garda Commissioner Shauna Coxon that the review was underway to deal with incidents similar to the experience as Brabazon had described. Coxon said that the system was introduced because garda managers were having difficulties tracking responses to calls. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
