Meeting with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission

Among the points raised at the AGSI executive meeting with GSOC were:

1. The failure to provide the member with full details of the complaint and the complainant. We acknowledge that GSOC has informed us that the Garda Commissioner receives the full details - but these are not being passed on to the member concerned. We have asked GSOC to use their good offices to request the Commissioner to pass on full information to the member and we have also asked the Commissioner to forward full information to members.

2. Only members directly involved in incidents should be investigated. 'Trawling' - i.e. serving notices to all on duty or in the vicinity is unfair and stressful for the members involved.

3. Details of complainants prosecuted for making false and malicious complaints against members of the gardaí should be highlighted in the GSOC Annual Report.

4. Thirty-four percent of the allegations contained in the 2,097 complaints received in 2009 were deemed to be inadmissible. Of the 232 cases investigated by the gardaí, supervised by GSOC, no breach of discipline was discovered in 217 cases - 94%! Of the 1,505 cases dealt with by 'unsupervised' garda investigations no breach of discipline was discovered in 1,376 cases - 91%.

5. Material in the GSOC Annual Report has led to misleading headlines in the media as in last year when the actions of 104 gardaí were misrepresented as causing serious injury or death, arising from reading the Executive Summary only. The factual situation was that 104 cases were referred to GSOC under Section 102 of the Garda Síochána Act - 50% of them referring to traffic accidents. The report in fact found that in 45% of all cases no serious injury was disclosed.

6. Of the Section 98 offences investigated - those which appear to involve offences -25 files were forwarded to the DPP, he directed no prosecution in 16 cases and only two convictions were actually recorded.

7. Investigate the possibility of organised groups or individuals targeting individual members of the Garda with a view to undermining both them and their investigations.

8. Discontinue the unfair practice of calling members for interview on one matter but under questioning putting other matters to them.

9. It is our preference that all complaints should be investigated by GSOC. We must move totally away from the position where the criticism 'guards investigating guards' can still be made.

The association has also written to the Commissioner pointing out to him that members under investigation are being provided with minimal information and, when they attend at interviews, other matters are being put to them of which they are not aware and which may have inferences of criminality. This situation is placing our members in an invidious position leaving several members subjected to compulsory interviews under section 39 of the GSA 2005. This clearly flies in the face of natural justice and members should not be placed in jeopardy by not providing full information of complaint and complainant.

Application of public service reform measures to the Garda Síochána
(the Transformation Agenda)

- the Sectoral agreement for the Garda Siochana

The parties,

· Will constructively engage for the purposes of developing in 2010  and to be piloted and implemented as soon as possible thereafter,  a more effective Garda rostering system to more closely match the  availability of staff with policing demands, while protecting the welfare of members;

· Support the augmentation of the civilian staff of the Garda Síochána through appropriate redeployment of staff from elsewhere in the public service, with the objective of maximising the availability of members for duties of a policing character and enhancing support for policing services and undertake to co-operate with this process;

· Will constructively engage in the enhancement of Garda training, in line with the Report of the Training and Development Review which has recently been published;

· Acknowledge that An Garda Síochána should be subject to performance management which takes account of the unique nature of a policing service, to be developed in 2010 and to be piloted and implemented as soon as possible thereafter;

· Will implement appropriate reporting arrangements involving members and civilian staff in the Garda Síochána;

· Will co-operate with the development, introduction and implementation of a new ICT Strategy (2010 to 2012);

and

· Will work constructively towards an arrangement whereby, on or before 31 December 2010, all payments, salary or otherwise, to members in the Garda Síochána shall be made exclusively by means of electronic funds transfer.

 Changes in Garda Síochána (GRA) Life Assurance Scheme

The GRA Life Assurance Scheme is open to members of all ranks and most AGSI members are members of this scheme.  At the GRA conference this year a motion was adopted which makes membership of a representative association (i.e. AGSI, GRA etc.) a condition for membership of the scheme.

Colleagues should remind newly-promoted sergeants, and others not in the association, that their life assurance cover will lapse later this year if they are not members of the association. 
 

Youth Crime Case Management System
A project by An Garda Síochána

The Youth Crime Garda Case Management project was one of the winners of the Taoiseach's Public Service Excellence Awards announced at a recent ceremony in Dublin Castle.

Sgt. Barry Moore, the Dublin North Central team leader from Fitzgibbon Street, accepted the award. The Garda Project was developed with the assistance of the Children Acts Advisory Board. It is a proactive, progressive approach to addressing the rate of juvenile offending in the Garda Division of Dublin North Central, which has policing responsibility for the North Inner City area of Dublin.

The Project is a co-coordinated and consistent management process. This process includes the appointment of a named member of An Garda Síochána who acts as the individual Case Manager for each selected young person and who is subsequently responsible for leading, co-coordinating and managing the young person's interaction with the criminal justice system, the juvenile's family and all other relevant agencies working with the juveniles. The Project aims to provide appropriate interventions and services to meet the needs of the children and to coordinate, manage and assess the impact of those services with a view to engineering those children out of the criminal justice system.

Four key steps underpin the Case Management system:

A series of both qualitative and quantative improvements have arisen from the implementation of this project:

• Identifying and Profiling the Juvenile at Risk
• Building positive relationships between stakeholders
• Creating and coordinating the services network
• Ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in the courts system

Training

Case Management Training is delivered via An Garda Síochána's Continuous Professional Development Programme and consists of four modules:

1. Process, procedures and management
3. Interagency Provision
2. Understanding of Children
4. Review of Court Procedures and legislation.

Management and Monitoring of Case Management

The North Central Division delivers its community policing service via thirteen Community Policing teams which are managed by individual Community Policing Inspectors, supervised by individual sergeants and operationalised by teams of community Gardaí.

Information Management

Each Garda Case Manager maintains a specially designed personal case file and an electronic database records all
case management data in the Dublin Metropolitan North Central Division.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the Project has shown that the Project is effective. The group that was the subject of this evaluation had amassed 219 charges in a nine month period before engaging with the project. However, after a nine month period of Case Management, the number of new charges brought before the courts had dropped to 80, showing a 64% reduction in recidivism.

Developments

The Garda Commissioner has directed that Case Management for Juveniles be rolled out nationally. A Project Team has been set up under the direction of Garda Community Relations to oversee the roll out. while the Research Department, Garda College will monitor and evaluate the roll out of Case Management.
 

Message from the AGSI President, Aidan O'Donnell 

Colleagues, it is with a tremendous sense of pride and honour that I address you for the first time as President of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI).

An important aspect of any association is the strength of its membership which in terms of AGSI, currently stands at 2,302.  The services and entitlements which membership of AGSI bestows on you are significant in many respects.  In addition, the value of group participation and representation, particularly in the prevailing climate, cannot be overstated.  Your support through membership of the Association gives us the strength to represent you as effectively as we can.  Never was  strength in numbers more important than it is today. 

I recognise the ever-increasing level of demands being placed on each of you.  However, I would urge all of you to support your Association and become involved.  Let your AGSI representatives know what is happening. Advise us of your concerns.  Tell us what you would like us to do as your representatives.  Attend meetings and let your voices be heard.

I would like to thank all  members of divisional branch committees for their hard work throughout the year.  I wish to record my appreciation too for the work done by our staff in AGSI headquarters and all members of the National Executive who work tirelessly on your behalf.

.

During the coming months, I will be meeting with your Branch Committees and I may get an opportunity to meet with some of you.  I am looking forward to those meetings and working with you in the times ahead.

As President, I propose to lead the new Executive in an open and dynamic manner.  Working with the Executive, I will endeavour to ensure the needs of AGSI members are strongly represented as we make our way through these difficult times.

Aidan O'Donnell
President

Memorial Garden and Roll of Honour inaugurated

The Memorial Garden and Roll of Honour for the 83 members of An Garda Síochána killed in the service of the State was opened by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Saturday, 15th May, 2010.

The garden is an impressive and moving tribute to the members who were killed while on active duty, combining moving and representative sculptures in a tranquil and atmospheric setting in the grounds of Dublin Castle.

During the opening ceremonies Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern presented medals to representatives from the families of the gardaí, whose names were inscribed in stone on a roll of honour.

Mr Cowen spoke of the range of duties performed by the gardai for the public every day - from dealing with the smallest problems to coping with extreme emergencies.  In turn they needed the support of the communities they served.

“Every sunny day and rainy night sees men and women put on the blue uniform and step forward to do their duty. Gardaí often have to deal with traumatic events that most people will never experience in their entire lives. And they do so with great empathy, understanding and tact,” the Taoiseach said.

“Gardaí also have to confront those who wilfully commit crimes of great violence, terror and abuse, and this they do with courage. They respond to our calls to defend our homes, police our roads and confront those who do us harm. We owe them our unending thanks."

The courage and dedication of gardaí had too often seen members of the force lay down their lives in the service of their fellow men and women, he added.

The grief of their families demonstrated the love they felt for those they had lost.  The Memorial Garden and the Roll of Honour were a small reminder that the whole community gave thanks for all members of An Garda Síochána who gave their lives serving the citizens of this country, said An Taoiseach.

The Garda Commissioner said it was a particular matter of pride to him that the force continued to serve unarmed, something he said had been fundamental to policing in Ireland since the establishment of An Gárda Síochána in 1922.

“At 83 different moments in the last 88 years, time has stood still for the entire Garda family as reports have come in that there has been an incident and a colleague has been lost,” he said.

“It is important that we take this moment to recognise the particular pain which those moments visit upon the loved ones of those who pay that ultimate sacrifice.”

The main concept behind the design of the Memorial Garden is the way that sudden unexpected death brings an abrupt end to the natural cycle of life which all living creatures share, The sculptures include a representation of a tree trunk felled before reaching maturity, exposing the rings which represent each year of life, and this representation is repeated in the layout of the garden.  The radiating rings also represent the ripples in a pool.

The seemingly solid structure of the granite wall is pierced by a sharp glass shard representing the fragility of life.  The names of members killed while on active duty are inscribed in stone while the name of all those who died on duty are entered in a Roll of Honour which is on display in the nearby Garda Museum which is housed in the old Records Tower of Dublin Castle.
 

THE AGSI NEWS SECTION

The AGSI Excellence Award winner, 2010

Angeline - a worthy winner of Excellence Award 

When gardaí in Dun Laoghaire organised a bus to bring 30 - 50 people of various ethnic backgrounds to an open evening in the local garda station a few years ago,  no one would get on the bus because they thought it was a ploy to take them to the airport for deportation!

Times have changed now however and a special project devised has in the meantime radically improved relations between the gardaí and the various communities and has opened a door to better understanding between all involved.

Angeline receiving her award from the then AGSI President, Dan Hanley.

Outreach initiative

Sgt Angeline Conefry, Dun Laoghaire, is the winner of the 2010 AGSI Excellence Award for her work on a special outreach initiative – the ‘Get Wise’ programme - for the travelling and immigrant communities which began four years ago.

Now Angeline is combining her experiences in a manual that will assist gardaí all over the country to replicate her programme and assist the communities involved in a number of ways. 

She hopes to receive funding of  €12,500 from the Minister for Integration, Mr John Curran T.D. for the production of the manual that will be launched in October this year. 

The programme had its inception in the preparation of the ‘F’ District Policing Plan in 2006 by Angeline in consultation with Supt. Martin Fitzgerald. 

The first pilot programme was carried out under the auspices of the Southside Travellers Action Group after a request to Angeline to provide a talk on bullying. 

Her first project was such a success that the group asked her to cover other topics of interest – the ‘Get Wise’ programme was born.

Topics covered by Angeline in subsequent projects included the role of the Garda Síochána, drugs, road safety and legislation, the Juvenile Diversion programme, racism, domestic violence, personal safety, security of life and property, police-related documents and form-filling, suicide and homelessness.

Angeline has received a letter of praise from Rita Canavan of the Dun Laoghaire Refugee Project for the work put in by Angeline and the other gardaí in Dun Laoghaire at the Monday night ‘drop-in’ centre for young people. The drop in night covers practical information and various topics which led to discussion and debates which informed the wider education of the participants in a very positive way .

The sessions also improved awareness of agencies that can help in providing advice and assistance while the involvement of the gardaí was very beneficial to immigrants in giving them a better understanding of the role of the police in Ireland.

Angeline was presented with her AGSI Excellence Award by then AGSI President Dan Hanley at a ceremony during the Annual Dinner of the Association held in conjunction with the Annual Delegate Conference on Tuesday 31st March 2010.

Angeline's work in pictures