report90361368

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)

roselawn

Roselawn Cemetery and Crematorium, outside Belfast

2588

Almost two tonnes of metal has been collected from the ashes of cremated bodies in Northern Ireland over the last four years as part of a recycling scheme, but bereaved families were not told, The Detail can reveal.

Precious metals including jewellery, gold teeth and fillings, as well as metal hips and nails from coffins are routinely collected from the site of Northern Ireland’s only crematorium in a process that began in 2010.

The materials are shipped to the Netherlands where a specialist company sorts the metals, with some being re-used in the construction of objects as diverse as road signs and aircraft engines.

Recycled material, it’s all relative.™

Jewellery, metal hips, gold teeth – why were families not told of cremation recycling scheme? (Niall McCracken, The Detail)

Grunge Concrete Cement Wall

The second series of acclaimed TG4 drama Corp + Anam.

With a poster designed by Annie Atkins , the Dubliner responsible for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2013) posterage.

Joanne writes:

The second series of TG4’s award winning drama Corp + Anam starring Diarmuid de Faoite and Maria Doyle Kennedy returns on Thursday, November 27 at 9.30pm. Produced by Galway based production company Magamedia, this second series has recently been nominated for the highly prestigious Prix Europa TV Awards held later this month in Berlin.

Corp + Anam is TV crime drama, with a heart of darkness. In series 2, dogged TV crime correspondent Cathal Mac Iarnáin (Diarmuid de Faoite), buries himself in his investigative journalism and launches a personal crusade against the Irish judiciary, while his marriage to his solicitor wife Mairead (Maria Doyle Kennedy) flounders. This hard hitting new series shines a light on one of the darkest corners of our society – the deep-rooted corruption of the Irish legal system. Series 2 is sure to ruffle feathers as it pulls no punches with the legal eagles…

Troid!

Corp + Anam (TG4)

Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 01.24.24

The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows defines:

vemödalen – n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same closeup of an eye—which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap, like a mass-produced piece of furniture you happen to have assembled yourself.

highdefinite

comet

Rosetta.

A computer rendering of a comet the European Space Agency wish to land a probe on that looks a bit like Ireland.

Comet’s Rugged Landscape Makes Landing A Roll Of The Dice (NPR)

The Broadsheet Book Of Unspecified Things That Look Like Ireland (New Island €5)

Thanks Darragh O Tuathail 

130

Supporters of former Irish Independent journalist Gemma O’Doherty outside the newspaper’s office on Talbot Street, Dublin 1, on August 27, 2013 – including Limerick-based Catherine Costelloe, a former officer with the London Metropolitan Police, far left, and former Garda John Wilson, far right

Families for Justice write:

Tomorrow, a delegation of families seeking justice for their deceased relatives will visit Stormont Castle to meet senior politicians. The families, who live in the Republic of Ireland, have lost loved ones in violent circumstances – in two cases, their own children. They believe An Garda Síochána failed to investigate the deaths properly. They have also been unable to get a meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The families will be accompanied by Garda whistleblower John Wilson and journalist Gemma O’Doherty. This is the first phase in a new international awareness-raising campaign about cases of alleged Garda wrongdoing which will be taken to the European Parliament and the United Nations, among other institutions, in 2015.

The families who will visit Stormont include Lucia O’Farrell, mother of Shane who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Co Monaghan in 2011; Anne and Eamonn Tuohey, parents of Shane who died in Clara, Co Offaly in 2002; Cyril Goonan, brother of Jim who was killed in Birr, Co Offaly in 2002; and Ann Doherty, twin sister of Mary Boyle (6) who went missing in Donegal in 1977.

Also joining the delegation is Limerick-based Catherine Costelloe, a former officer with the London Metropolitan Police who, since returning to Ireland, has spent many years searching for people who have been murdered but whose remains are missing.

Brian Sheridan, a former Director of Elections for Fine Gael in Laois/Offaly, who has been at the forefront of the justice campaign for Fr Niall Molloy, will also attend. The delegation will meet senior politicians from each of the political parties in Northern Ireland including the DUP, Sinn Féin, the UUP, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The delegation will arrive at Stormont on Thursday at 11am.

Previously: Going North

Receipt Of Indifference

Difficult To Quash

sierra

Niall James writes:

This is my buddy, James Nunan, from Blackrock, who’s been volunteering with King’s College Hospital in London to help with the ebola crisis. This is a video of him outside a hospital in Sierra Leone. It’s pretty interesting/worrying…particularly the reality of the hospital screening tent. I asked what happens in the screening tent. He said, “They just die in the tent. They just get water and that’s it. If they get in the isolation unit they get drugs and a bed.”

Broadsheet.ie