Garda members have begun specialist pursuit training with a British police force and will begin training their colleagues in high-speed and dangerous pursuits by the end of the year.
The Irish Times understands a number of Garda trainers have already been under instruction by specialists at Devon and Cornwall Police, which has a centre of excellence.
The move will ensure frontline members driving patrol cars have the expertise to engage in the most complex and high-risk vehicle pursuits and, as a result, they will be sanctioned to undertake those operations.
News the Garda has turned to a British police force to plug what has become a gaping skills shortfall comes after five teenagers in a BMW were killed in a wrong-way crash on the M9 in Co Kildare last Sunday morning as they tried to evade gardaí.
RM Block
Even before Sunday’s incident, the Garda had been coming under increasing pressure due to its apparent inability to intervene and stop suspects speeding on motorbikes and scramblers.
Many of those offending on the roads, mostly male teenagers, know if they travel the wrong way down a major roadway the gardaí pursuing them will be ordered to back off by commanders back at base.
In reply to queries, Garda Headquarters said the training in Britain “has been part of An Garda Siochana’s plan to implement vehicle pursuit training for gardaí”.
Meanwhile, the media regulator said on Tuesday that it has contacted TikTok to determine how it is responding to footage of joyriding and dangerous driving posted on its platform, and whether it notifies An Garda Síochána about this kind of content.
Videos showing car robberies and illegal driving have been widely shared on social media platforms over a number of years. However, the trend has come under increased scrutiny since the incident at the weekend in which a BMW was driven in the wrong direction on the M9 motorway near Moone and collided head-on with another car.
The four people travelling in the second car – three sisters aged in their 20s and 30s and a child, who were travelling to Dublin Airport – were taken to hospital following the crash. Two of the women remained in a serious condition yesterday, while the third woman and the child were said to be in a serious condition.
TikTok yesterday defended its record in removing harmful content. It said it was “closely monitoring content” related to the M9 incident and would remove videos and accounts that broke its rules. It said it removes content that glorifies violence or promotes crimes that could harm people.
[ TikTok ‘monitoring’ M9 crash content and defends record on removing harmful postsOpens in new window ]
The Irish Times examined a selection of TikTok accounts which had been actively posting video footage of joyriding. The majority of these have since been banned by the platform, though new videos of car thefts had been posted since Sunday’s incident. Some videos posted yesterday showed dangerous driving in purportedly stolen cars, with users bragging about gardaí being unable to catch them.
Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) is responsible for regulating social media giants’ activities in Ireland and in some cases across the European Union.
Its executive chairman, Jeremy Godfrey, said the regulator was “generally concerned about the glorification of dangerous activity” and a range of “harmful content” being available on social-media platforms. It has demanded a “full account” from TikTok and an initial response from the company was expected yesterday. CnaM will assess the response and consider whether the social-media giant is in breach of its responsibilities.
The five youths who died in the crash were named as Kamil Pustkowski, Jack Kennedy, Alex McCarthy (all 17), Jeremy O’Brien (18) and Joe “Joey” Carthy (15).
The social-media accounts of some of the teenagers featured footage of car thefts and attempts to evade Garda cars in high-speed chases.
It is understood the BMW was not registered to any of the teenagers who were killed, or any of their family members, with gardaí initially suspecting it had been stolen. However, detectives now believe it changed hands for a small sum of money earlier this month without the registration detail being updated.
