Interim Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan (centre), with, from left, Cyril Dunne, Chief Administrative Officer An Garda Siochana, and Acting Commissioner Dublin Metropolitan Region John Twomy at the Dublin Metropolitan Region Area Office, Harcourt Square, Dublin yesterday.

Bodger has just finished the door stopping Garda Inspectorate report on the investigation of crime in Ireland.

Herewith Bodger’s ‘At A Glance’ guide:

More than 1,000 garda staff and members were interviewed

Around 1,500 PULSE crime and incident records were examined.

Some 158 calls for service, made by members of the public, were randomly selected. All information on the 158 calls was requested and the full process of crime investigation over 12 months, from reporting, to recording, to investigation, to prosecution was tracked.

44 of the 158 calls reviewed were not recorded on PULSE.

Based on a sampling of 500 PULSE crime records, the Inspectorate found 30%
to be incorrectly classified and insufficient detail in 16% of cases to determine
if the classification was correct;

Of the 158 Volume Case Reviews, 114 were recorded on PULSE, of which 90
were designated as a crime;

• The Inspectorate disagreed with 32% of the classifications shown on PULSE.
There was insufficient detail to make a determination in 6% of cases;

• Assaults had lower rates of correct classification (38%);

Approximately 420,000 Review/Clarifications issued to members by GISC staff
seeking further information, or in some cases clarifying crime classification,
are outstanding;

8.5% of all crimes recorded on PULSE were reclassified over seventeen month
period from January 2011 to May 2012;

• Inspectorate selected eight crime categories and examined 2,372 crimes
reclassified between January 2011 and May 2012 in the seven divisions visited;
• Six of the eight categories significantly moved to a lesser crime type;
• In 83% of cases, reclassification resulted in a crime moving to a less serious
offence;
• The greatest percentage movement to a lesser crime took place in the categories
of burglary, robbery and assault harm;

In focus groups with members, it was highlighted that crimes are sometimes
reclassified incorrectly or changed to a non-crime category;
• PULSE records were viewed by the Inspectorate in which gardaí had recorded
on PULSE that they had reclassified a crime as a result of directions from a
supervisor;

The Inspectorate directly accessed the PULSE system and sampled 393
reclassified incidents from live PULSE incident records. A database was created
with detailed information from each record:

• Inspectorate found 71% of crimes incorrectly reclassified with insufficient
information to make a determination in 11% of the cases;
• No recorded rationale to explain the reclassification in many cases;
• In the majority of cases the initial classification was correct;

There are approximately 700 untrained detectives;

Some detectives investigated 100 crimes a year and some less than ten crimes
per year;

In 43% of the cases that were investigated by the gardaí, there were no updates
on PULSE in the twelve months following the creation of the record;

Since 2005, approximately 5,000 gardaí have joined the Garda Síochána and a
large majority of those gardaí have not received any or appropriate interview
techniques training;

Only 45% of fingerprints were taken in 2012/13 for those detained in garda
stations who should have had fingerprints taken;

• In 2013, of all persons who should have had fingerprints taken, 66% were not
taken

The Inspectorate requested detection data from the Garda Síochána in the form of a PULSE search of key volume crime areas in a three month period in 2012 of the seven districts visited:

• Of 2,195 crimes reported, 946 were recorded on PULSE as detected, resulting
in a detection rate of 43%; only 390 of the total detections had a charge or a
summons attached to the PULSE incident. On examination, the Inspectorate’s
view is the correct detection rate is 26%

• Inspectorate examined 318 of the 556 PULSE incidents where there was no
charge or summons recorded.

RUN!

Garda Inspectorate Report

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)