41 gardaí to retire in 12-month period

Clare’s Joint Policing Committee met this week to discuss issues pertaining to rural policing, crime, garda ­retirements and proposed new penalty points. Carol Byrne reports

 

The number of gardaí who will have retired since March 1, 2011 and the end of February this year is expected to be in the region of 41.
To date, there have been 30 gardaí who have retired from the force and there are 11 more due to go in the next month, the first of these retiring from Friday of this week.
Chief Superintendent John Kerin told members of Clare’s JPC on Monday that despite the retirement of 41 officers, “I don’t think the service being provided will be affected even though we are down people.”
He said the full extent of the situation would not be known until February, as there have been some members that “have changed their minds”.
While members of the JPC were concerned about the level of retirement from within the force, another concern was the number of cars that would have to be decommissioned due to them hitting their peak mileage of 300,000.
Clare Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Chief Superintendent that, seeing as the division is down nine or ten cars, had he concerns about the continuation of rural policing.
“We got five new cars last year and we have three more cars to be assigned and we are expecting those this week or next week, at the latest. It’s all about budgets and our commissioner is very aware of the situation nationwide.
“He has to wait until the end of February to see how much he needs to allocate for pensions and for lump sums and if the numbers don’t go as expected and if he has money left over, I would think it would go towards patrol cars,” he said.
Speaking after the meeting the chief superintendent said that of the three cars to be assigned to the Clare Garda Division, one would be assigned to Killaloe Garda Station, one to Ennistymon and the third to Kilrush.
West Clare Councillor Oliver Gary asked the chief superintendent if he could give any assurances that the garda car assigned to Kildysart Garda Station would be maintained.
“That presence is very good in a rural area like that. When gardaí are coming from Kilrush, they can’t come as often and it does have an effect on break-ins.
“There was a spate of thefts of engines a couple of years ago and since then we have community alert and the presence of the patrol car,” Councillor Gary stressed.
The chief supt indicated that if needs change, he couldn’t “guarantee it will remain there”.
“We are down cars and we are managing ok without them. The Kildysart car is also used to cover Kilmihil and Labasheeda. I can’t afford to have a car there 24 hours a day lying idle so I can’t guarantee it will remain there,” he said.

 

 

Lowest number of road fatalities

Clare Garda Division has recorded the lowest number of road fatalities for 2011 than in any other garda division, according to Clare’s chief superintendent.
There were just two road deaths in the division in 2011, which is a significant drop from the average of seven to 15, which the division had recorded in the past eight to nine years.
Figures have been dropping year on year, with four road deaths having occurred in 2010, eight in 2009, nine in 2008 and 11 in 2007.
“We have the lowest number of road deaths in any garda division nationally. We had an average of between seven and 15 in the last eight to nine years,” Chief Supt John Kerin said.
“What we see at the moment as the biggest contributor to road deaths is a host of events, speeding there is no doubt is a contributor, careless use of mobile phones, which leads to careless driving. Tiredness is becoming more of a factor with people working long hours and travelling longer distances to work and it is certainly a significant factor in road deaths countrywide and that’s the national trend. Deaths are also caused by people not wearing safety belts in cars, particularly backseat passengers,” he said.
He stressed that, countrywide, there has been “a huge amount of pedestrians killed this year” and highlighted the importance of wearing high-visibility clothing when out walking or cycling.
“The whole issue of pedestrians walking on roadways during the hours of darkness without wearing high-visibility clothing is an issue and cyclists not having proper lighting, these things all contribute to road deaths,” he said.
Speaking at a meeting on Monday, the chief superintendent said initiatives undertaken locally by the county council and through the hard work of Barry Keating, Clare’s road safety officer, were invaluable.
“Engineering and initiatives like the council’s speed signs on the Tulla Road all add to it greatly to continue reducing road deaths in County Clare,” he concluded.

 

More garda stations to close next year

Clare’s garda chief superintendent said that while only one station in Clare is to close in 2012, the commissioner has indicated that nationally more garda stations will be closed in 2013.
“The commissioner has indicated that more garda stations will be closed next year, there is no point in buttering it up, more are set to close. I can say that Carrigaholt is the only one closing this year,” Chief Supt John Kerin told the JPC meeting on Monday.
Clare’s senior garda was asked to address the meeting on what plans he had for the rural garda stations left open with the limited resources at his disposal.
“Carrigaholt Garda Station will close in the next two to three months and Kilrush and Kilkee will conduct policing for that area. There is a plan in place at the moment which has to be finalised,” he told the members. 
He added that it is his intention to “provide the best policing service we can with fewer resources”.
“There are no choices here. We need to make the best use of it we can and I’m confident we can do that. It’s a challenge but I’m confident we can do it,” the garda chief said.
He indicated that with the advent of mobile phones and modern technology the number of people calling to rural garda stations is very low.
“If we have two to three people calling a day, that’s it. The necessity to open garda stations as long as they have been no longer exists. Everyone has phones and email and we have to change with the times.
“It’s not like it was in the 1920s and we can’t continue to do that with less numbers and less transport. If the numbers retired go, I would rather see gardaí on mobile or foot patrol than in a garda station,” Chief Supt Kerin said.
Speaking after the meeting, he explained that among measures coming is the amalgamation of the three garda stations at Quin, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Sixmilebridge.
“There are three gardaí in Sixmilebridge and three gardaí in Newmarket and one in Quin. From my point of view, it makes sense that they would come under the direction of a sergeant and because they are all situated so close to each other, it makes sense from an operation perspective to put them under the operation of Sergeant Tracey Stanley, who is based in Sixmilebridge. She will be in charge of the three stations at the three sub-districts. The beauty of it is heretofore they were working as three independent states as it were and now they will be working with a coordinated effort. I would be confident that as a result of what we are doing there will be a better service provided to the public in those three areas, because the three stations will be patrolling together,” he explained.
Responding to concerns raised by Councillor Oliver Gary about retirements in the Kilrush policing district, Chief Supt Kerin said, “A lot of people have retired there but we are fortunate that people coming into the district are moving to Kilrush. We are down three people from this time last year,” he explained.
After the meeting he told The Clare Champion that there had been a lot of retirements in the Kilrush district but that of those who retired, there were just three who had yet to be replaced. He said the other vacancies had been filled through transfers to the Clare Garda Division.
“The only transfers happening in the garda force currently are exchange transfers, so if I want to go to Athlone, the only way I can go is if someone from Athlone wants to come here.
“So, for example, if someone wants to transfer to the district from Athlone, I’d ok it but I’d insist that the person coming down would go to Kilrush rather than Ennis, so we have been able to fill the vacancies like that. Needless to say, it has resulted in other stations like Ennis and Shannon being down on numbers,” he said.
Superintendent Gerard Wall of the Kilrush Garda District told members of the JPC the importance and value of community alert schemes, which can’t be overstated.
“If someone has their eyes open and can take notes and contact the garda station ­consistently, then that is invaluable in rural areas,” he said.
He added, “Every effort is being made to ensure our policing continues as it was. There are issues but until February and until we have the figures of those retiring, we don’t know what the impact will be.”

 

Over 20,000 incidents reported last year

Clare gardaí recorded a total of 20,821 incidents on their PULSE system for the year ending December 31, 2011, which equates to 400 incidents per week or 57 per day.
At Monday’s meeting, Superintendent Peter Duff gave an outline of the crime statistics for the Clare policing division for last year. He explained the total number of incidents recorded on their computer system, known as PULSE, showed that there were 20,821 incidents in the county where a garda had to go somewhere and do something.
This figure is an increase of 2,840 incidents on the number recorded in 2010, which stood at 17,981 at year end.
While the number of incidents recorded has increased on last year, crime is consistently down across all areas except for under the category of ‘theft other’, which is up by 2% on 2010 figures.
Commenting on the increase after the meeting, Chief Superintendent John Kerin said there were 466 instances of ‘theft other’ recorded in 2011, an increase of 10 on the 2010 figures.
He explained that of those crimes “53 are fuel related, that’s 11%, half of those being thefts of home heating oil and the other half being fuel taken from trucks or buses”. Also included in those figures was 74 crimes relating to the theft of copper, lead, and scrap metal, which makes up 16% of the overall figure.
“So when you add them together, it’s 27%; it’s significant enough but not the be all and end all. Other types of thefts that come under that category could be when someone is in a nightclub, they go to the toilet and come back and their bag is gone, items taken from farms, things left discarded that are stolen. Anything that doesn’t come under the categories of theft from shops, theft from vehicles or theft from the person falls into ‘theft other’,” he said.
Outlining to Clare’s JPC the crime statistics for 2011, Superintendent Peter Duff showed that there was an increase in homicide offences, with two recorded in 2011 with persons now before the courts, compared with none in 2010.
Compared with 2010, there was a decrease of 14.81% in sexual offences; attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences were down by 23.09%; kidnapping and related offences were down 50%; robbery/extortion was down 13.04%; burglary and related offences were down 4.69%; theft-related offences were down 12.23%; fraud-related offences were down 23.26%, controlled drug offences were down 33.89%, weapons and explosives offences down 43.90% and damage to property and the environment is also down to 22.28%.
Of those 11 main category of offences, the total number of crimes for 2011 was 1,080, compared with 1,338 in 2010, representing an overall reduction of 637 crimes or 18.61%.
Other offence categories were also down including public order, down 258 crimes or 19.28% and offences against government, justice procedures and organisation of crime, which is down by 18.78%, or by 43 offences on last year.
Councillor Joe Arkins asked the gardaí if there was any differentiation in the category of sexual assaults that would show whether the alleged offences were of a historic nature or more recent.
He was told that the PULSE system only recorded the offences by the date they are reported and not by when the offence was allegedly committed. “We’ve had a number of investigations where the garda wasn’t born the year that the offence occurred,” Supt Duff explained.
The superintendent added there were two robberies at the end of December in Ennis, where five people have been arrested and released without charge pending files to the Director of Public Prosecution. He added that in relation to the robbery of Liddy’s Costcutter in Ennis earlier this month, gardaí have a suspect identified but he is not from County Clare and they are actively pursuing him.
Speaking after the meeting, Chief Supt Kerin said gardaí in Clare “are hopeful of making an early arrest” in relation to this crime.
Chief Supt Kerin said arrests had been made in relation to the theft of siphoning of home heating oil/diesel and that some people had been brought before the court in relation to this.
“There has been a decrease in the copper value, it is not as valuable as it was earlier in the year. With the theft of oil, if people aren’t reporting it, they’re foolish, because it is likely to continue,” he told the members.
He added that recently in Sixmilebridge four or five people were stopped and found with “very sophisticated equipment for siphoning”.
“We’ve had some fantastic detections from people who take the registration of cars. As resources and budgets reduce, the level of input from the communities is all the more important for communities to get organised,” the chief superintendent stressed.
Supt Duff explained that there were 374 missing persons reports filed with the gardaí in 2011 but that while there was a drop of 20 on last year, the reports did not necessarily mean 374 people went missing in 2011.
“The figure for missing persons might seem like a high number of reports but seven or eight individuals can account for the majority of these. Some of these people are in care and don’t return or go missing several times over the year. So there are a small number of people that make up for a large portion of this,” he said.
He added that drug-related offences are also down but that there had been a number of detections of “grow houses” in the county in 2011.