Suicidal dogs, concerns about a bird’s nest and someone eating cheese and onion crisps on a bus are among the call-outs gardaí have been sent on in recent years as members call for stricter “triaging” of complaints.
Officials working in Garda control rooms are highly reluctant to “cancel” calls from the public and classify them as non-police matters, due to fears of repercussions, gardaí say.
An Garda Síochána received significant criticism several years ago for cancelling calls, including calls relating to serious matters such as domestic violence, and not registering the incidents as criminal complaints.
However, members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) which represents 11,000 gardaí, now say members feel forced to issue a response to calls which are clearly not a matter for the force.
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Some of these calls are “laughable”, said GRA representative Peter Firth. “We have a very weak policy in relation to the Garda decision-making model, due to the level of oversight and fear of discipline.
“People are very slow to cancel calls because gardaí are worried that a member of the public might complain or that someone in management might perceive a call that we didn’t attend as one we should have. Again, it’s a fear of discipline.
“We are getting calls that are never a policing matter and they’re being responded to by An Garda Síochána.”
He cited one complaint about someone eating crisps on a bus. “What happened was that there was someone on a bus eating a packet of cheese and onion, causing annoyance to another member of the public because of the smell.”
Another call in the southeast of the country resulted in two gardaí being sent to a property as a neighbour was concerned about the welfare of some chicks in a bird’s nest on the property.
“Because we’re not declining those calls, the requests become more acceptable over time. It becomes its own monster,” Garda Firth said.
“The reason they are sent to gardaí is that the members in the control room have to make the decision and they have no faith in the policy that they won’t be disciplined,” he added.
Garda Dan Ryan, who is stationed in Carlow, said his colleagues were recently sent to a house after someone rang in saying they thought their dog was suicidal.
The person called “believing that her dog was suffering from mental health problems and the dog ... was going to take his own life,” Garda Ryan said.
“Currently, there’s no triage policy with the control room,” he said. “We have to go to everything. We had to go speak with this lady. I wouldn’t say we spoke with the dog.”
In response, Garda headquarters said it operates a community policing model involving a “partnership-based, proactive, problem-solving style of policing”.
“It is focused on community engagement, crime prevention and law enforcement and addresses crime and policing quality-of-life issues affecting communities.”
