4 days ago
Major traffic policing report: Inquiry team 'shocked' by lack of interest in job of some gardaí
A REPORT RELEASED today has revealed that a 'significant cohort' of roads policing gardaí show low productivity, general disinterest and make an effort to avoid work.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said more needs to be done to tackle underperformance, after a report found some traffic gardaí 'deliberately' ignoring offences.
There were many highly-motivated gardaí, but a minority had little interest in their jobs,
according to the Crowe report
, which contains the findings of an independent inquiry.
The inquiry team was 'quite shocked' at how open some gardaí were about their 'lack of interest' in their job.
Some gardaí had their Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems switched off or not working properly, including one patrol car in which the system's field of vision was obscured by the rear-view mirror.
ANPR automatically detects speeding, while also telling gardaí if the vehicle is untaxed, stolen or suspect.
Garda management 'disappointed'
Harris said there needs to be a collective effort to deal with underperformance.
'While [the inquiry team] found the majority of Roads Policing Gardaí were professional, dedicated and productive, they also met a significant cohort of officers who are disinterested, have a poor work ethic and deliberately ignored offences,' he said.
'This is very disappointing, as the fact that some Roads Policing Gardaí had no issue with openly outlining to the researcher how they go about avoiding work.'
Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman and Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon at the report's launch today
Lauren Boland
Lauren Boland
Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman said the report's findings on productivity made for 'difficult reading'.
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'It's not systemic, but it is significant numbers [of gardaí] that we need to deal with.'
She said that the 'majority' of road policing gardaí are 'dedicated, professional and productive'.
Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon did not directly answer when a reporter asked if inadequate supervision has cost lives.
'This is a whole of organisation approach. What's not covered in this report is how checkpoints and enforcements are in many cases being done by non-road policing units,' she said.
Coxon said roads policing is taken seriously across all of An Garda Síochána.
'If the number [of fatalities] was one, we'd still be taking it seriously.'
She added that some supervisors want to improve performance, but 'don't know how'.
'Supervisors may have felt discipline was too harsh.'
Coxon said there's no way to know if anyone has been sanctioned over the report's revelations, as the findings don't identify members.
The Crowe team engaged with over 100 members of An Garda Síochána.
The report also found that there were a 'significant number of vacancies' in roads policing. There are 40% fewer members in the units now than there were in 2009.
It also said that vacancies at supervisor level in particular are a problem.
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