Better equipment for the Gardai

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Think its a terrible idea too be gonest Nog. For starters theres the safety aspect of one man patrols. The US have multiple items for defence, we dont.

Well say if we had pepper spray and/or Tazer. If we had better equipment then wouldn't that make the idea viable?

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

they have vehicle tracking in the bigger forces, we dont

Isn't the new Tetra system to be installed in the cars going to have a tracking system in place? That's what is being discussed in my station.

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Escorting a prisoner in the back with no cage whereas the states have cages.

Cages should be installed as standard

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Its just not a safe option IMHO. Anyway, didnt we try it at some stage in the past? There were problems with leaving the patrol cars behind with S41 cars and drink drivers, etc.
Besides, we dont have that many cars!

I didn't know it was implemented in the past. When did this happen? And what were the results? As regards S41 veh they could be towed. The whole area here needs to be tightened up with owner registration and declaration of non use just like England. Otherwise the car can be scrapped or sold.

S49 cars in my station are not usually brought back to the station. I don't really see why they should except maybe to prevent the driver driving immediately after being released.

I think we can all agree that extra cars can be bought for little or no money. Our fleet is almost if already brought up to date/modernised.

I realise it is a controversial idea but with proper equipment, which is not alot more that we have already, we could police our country roads better and intercept travelling criminals more often. Would that not be a better deterent than our current deployment techniques?

metman wrote: »

Its not for me, and everyone I know thats worked single-crewed much prefers having an oppo. The way forward is more double-crewed cars on the road, not less!

Just mho.

I can see your point and thanks for your opinion. I know it is not an idea that would be a welcome one but I felt I needed to discuss it. There are inherent risks involved but I feel with careful planning on the individual Garda it could work to our advantage. Taking my district as an example I've already quoted our numbers on the same unit of myself being 4 in our station and another 4 in sub-districts. One would be S.O. and then have seven cars out on the road answering calls and patrolling. My district is not a large one at approx 50 miles in circumference so with 7 cars out, backup should be less than 5 minutes away. Possibly if two cars could team up and patrol one sub-district but still be minutes away from each other. Each member of the 2 man team back each other up when needed.

I realise that certain calls would require more than one Garda such as the public order incidents and domestics but having said that the current situ in my district is the normal 2 per car and for back up we would have to wait at least 20 minutes for support.

It has happened a couple of times to me. On one occasion we came across a large group of people beating a young couple. My colleague arrested one male and the crowd turned on us. I bundled the male into the back of the car and ran around to the other side of the car and pushed the couple into the front passenger seat of the car. I had to beat off men and women with my baton when they started to hit the car and me with sticks. All the while the arrested male was trying to kick out the back window of the car. My colleague was radioing the station for urgent assistance but of course the radio decided it was a great time to not work. We tried phoning the station but the phone was engaged with all the people ringing the station about the row. It was a complete and utter disaster and to top it all of when we arrived at the station my colleague told me had got blood in his eyes from somewhere. Both of us went to the hospital so he could get his eyes washed out. Believe or not this was a Saturday night and there was only 3 of us working that night.

Ever since that night I make sure that I am equipped with a radio, state phone and my own phone just in case. More often than not I will never use any of them during a tour of duty but it is better to have and not need and not have and need it. It is unbelieveable that some of my colleagues don't even have a phone with them when they start duty but rely completely on the radio in the car. Very lackadasical approach.

metman wrote: »

It could well work in your district. From what you say it sounds viable.

As regards, the phone/radio. Its funny that some things are the same no matter where you are.... Despite having a 'supposed' all singing all dancing digital radio more often than not I find myself using my own mobile phone, at my own expense, to bail the job out! :rolleyes:

We do the same using our phones or the state phones to receive sensitive information. Fortunately our station has a little known freephone number *DOH

GTC wrote: »

We should definitely have better cars in Traffic.

Mondeos are fine for chasing people, but the engines need to be bigger. Ford do some better higher models like a 2.5/3.0 V6.

Drogheda TC have a 2.5 V6 and I've heard it is an animal of a car.

GTC wrote: »

The checkpoint game is turning very sour. I cannot see any sense in nearly abandoning the speed checks and random patrols we used to do. If nothing else, we should be helping the rural stations or the district ABCD guys.

We have a good rapport with our TC lads as well as TC from another district. We have the only breathilyser in the western part of our division at the moment so they are appreciative of our co-operation plus they get tea and coffee made for them!!!!!!!! We conduct checkpoints together when it suits and they share their experience for catching 49's etc. Both parties have made themselves available when assistance is needed so its a bit of give and that on both sides.