Tag Archives: An Garda Síochána

This morning.

The Public Accounts Committee’s chairman Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming gave the committee a brief update from the gardai on the thousands of drivers who were wrongfully convicted, and wrongfully given penalty points, by gardai between 2006 and 2016.

In April 2016, it emerged that some 146,865 summonses had been issued incorrectly for motorists who weren’t given an opportunity to pay a fixed penalty notice.

Of those 146,865 summonses, 14,700 cases resulted in a penalty being imposed by the courts.

At the same time, it emerged gardai had claimed to have carried out one million breath tests which never took place.

This morning, Mr Fleming said that, of those 14,700 people, fines have to be reimbursed to approximately 12,000 people.

And he said, of those 12,000 people, the gardai have only been able to track down 4,000 of these motorists.

Mr Fleming said:

“So in otherwords, what they’re [gardai] saying is they want to go back into court to get the case struck out and the [penalty] points removed but they need the consent of the person before they bring their name into court.”

“Out of the 12,000, there’s only 4,000 consents that have been granted to date.”

Mr Fleming added that the gardai also said that they have yet to meet or speak to a motorist who lost their driver’s licence as a consequence of the blunder – despite several people making this claim on TV or radio back in 2016.

Mr Fleming added:

“Here we are, it’s not a great administration system, three years on, that only a third of the people have been tied down. It speaks for itself.”

He added that perhaps some of the motorists affected have already had the incorrect points extinguished from their licence, due to time lapsed.

Previously: A Breathtaking Timeline

Rollingnews

An Garda Siochana tweetz:

Dublin Traffic: There is currently a skip in the middle lanes of the M50 Northbound at J4 Ballymun. Emergency services are currently en route. Please approach with extreme care.

Jay.

Kers.

UPDATE:


Top from left: deputy Commissioner John Twomey, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn and Chief Administrative Office Joseph Nugent

This afternoon.

Harcourt Street, Dublin 2

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris unveils the new Garda Operating Model, considered to be ‘the biggest restructuring of the force in modern times’.

An Garda Síochána says that there will be an increasing number of community policing teams.

It also says that there will be a reduction in administrative structures and the community policing teams will be working with communities to identify and tackle problem crimes in their area.

…the changes are designed to deal with the changes in Irish society, including the diversity of communities, the nature of crime and changes in the garda workforce.

…there will be an improvement in garda technical capabilities to tackle cyber crime, with 50 gardaí currently studying for a postgraduate qualification in economic crime.

Among the changes included is a reduction in garda regions from six to four and a reduction in the number of garda divisions from 28 to 19.

This is designed to release more gardaí to frontline duties and deliver a more localised service to communities…

FIGHT!

Nearly 1,800 extra gardaí at frontline as part of structural changes (RTÉ)

Full report here

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

A former Garda member who has campaigned for years for the force to admit he was dismissed because he was gay has now been told by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris that his “alleged involvement in homosexual activity” was the issue.

“A document has been located at the Department of Justice and Equality and provided to me, and indicates that your services were dispensed with in advance of your position being confirmed due to suspicions of your alleged involvement in homosexual activity,” Mr Harris has now said in a letter to him.

Garda was sacked in 1982 over ‘alleged homosexual activity’, Harris confirms (Irish Times)

Related: 1982: I was a garda. I was gay. I lost my job (Conor Lally, Irish Times, July 20, 2019)

Previously: ‘I Was Treated Like A Pariah’

From top: Garda Commissioner Drew Harris; Brothel Keepers; a campaign seeking safety over enforcement in the policing of sex workers.

Lucy Smyth, writes:

We (a collective of sex workers and allies) are beginning a new campaign today, calling on the Garda Commissioner to immediately adopt policing policy which prioritises the safety of people in sex work over enforcement.

We have produced a website detailing official statistics on brothel keeping and with an analysis of 82 cases (involving 165 individuals) of sex workers convicted of brothel keeping over the last decade.

We would like to especially draw attention to the summary key findings in our Analysis section here.

As of today we are collecting signatures for a formal group letter to the Commissioner.

We have written to the Commissioner today to advise him that we are beginning this campaign.

Kind regards.

Lucy Smyth, of UglyMugs.ie (a member of the Brothel Keepers collective).

Brothel Keepers

Rollingnews

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris

Drew Harris was being driven back to Garda Headquarters at around 5.30pm when he saw a car being driven in an erratic manner in Blanchardstown.

The Commissioner contacted the Roads Policing Unit and the woman was stopped.

She was subsequently arrested and tested for alcohol and is expected to be prosecuted.

Nobody likes a whistleblower snitch.

Woman arrested after Garda Commissioner intervenes in road incident (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Lose the Ali-tude.

Previously: When Ali Came To ireland