How do you perceive the overall work of the Gardai

Hagar · 02-11-2008 2:41pm

The poll results above, 8 trust, 12 don't, are surprising accurate compared to the Irish Times poll.

TheNog · 02-11-2008 2:51pm

Hagar wrote: »

Question: Do you think the Garda Síochána has the confidence of the public?

Response:
43% YES
57% NO

For emphasis I'll un-spin the results.

72% of respondents felt that improvements need to be made.

19% are not satisfied with the overall service provided to the community.

Satisfaction rates ranging from 71% to 89% within different Garda divisions.

44% of respondents had contact with the gardaí last year and satisfaction with overall contact with the Gardaí was 79 per cent.

72% felt that the Garda service needed to be improved with the most frequent suggestions calling for greater manpower, more foot patrols, more contact with the community and longer station opening hours.

9% desrcibed Gardaí at their local station as neither ‘very approachable’ nor ‘approachable’.

18% felt that the Gardaí did not do a good job in the locality, although satisfaction rates were found to be lower among local authority tenants compared with other housing tenure categories.

47% did not see a Garda in their locality in the previous week.
35% were not satisfied with the level of Garda visibility in their locality, an improvement of 3% on the preceding year.
On a divisional basis, 27% in Donegal to 7% in Cork West did not feel the Gardai were doing a good job.

Responses about the relationship between the Gardaí and the community showed high degrees of confidence that anyone in Garda custody would have their rights fully respected, that the Gardaí would help if a person’s rights were infringed and that the Gardaí carry out their role in a fair and impartial manner.

9.2% said that they or a member of their household had been a victim of crime in 2007, down by 0.6% on 2006.
Basically 1 household in ten is the victim of reported crime.
20% of people who had been victims of crime said they had not reported the incident to the Gardai, a increase of 3% on 2006.
56% expressed dissatisfaction with being kept informed of progress in the investigation.
25% said they were worried about being targeted by criminals
21% said they felt less safe when out walking
89% said they thought crime is increasing
57% described crime as a very serious problem.

“This survey sends a very clear message to Justice Minister Dermot Ahern before Budget Day: people want greater Garda manpower, more foot patrols, more contact with the community and longer Garda station opening hours. They also want a Government that is tough on criminals and tough on crime. That is why Minister Ahern must ensure that frontline Garda services are not slashed in tomorrow’s Budget," said Fine Gael's Justice spokesman Charles Flanagan.

I don't think what I said mis-represented general public opinion by too great a degree.

Flaming - no
Talking tripe - no
Off topic - probably yes, sincere apologies offered, I got a bit caught up in the moment.

Overal I think the public perception survey is fairly good. Room for improvement - yes but in all fairly good.

Boston wrote: »

Point -> missed.
Why aren't the public afforded the same benefit?

No you see you are missing the point. I deal with a couple of hundred people a week and I work in what would be considered a fairly quiet station so if a person made a complaint against me, how do you think I could remember the facts three/four weeks or months later!!!!

Yes of course I would need their name and the date I dealt with them.

The same thing would happen to you if a female employee complained that you had sexually harassed them.

CLADA · 02-11-2008 3:07pm

Mairt wrote: »

... I've edited this until I'm in a better mood

(just got off nights)

Have we turned over a new leaf Mairt?

Your mood never stopped you before.

The following is from a thread earlier this year.

Mairt wrote: »

Not surprised in the least.

My son was mugged almost one year ago. Despite the fact that he gave them guards a name and location, he had four witnesses who were willing to go to court or whatever else it took the lazy fvck of a cop never took it any further than taking some details.

I tried everything from contacting the station almost daily for weeks on end and always got an excuse, everything from "she's on leave, call in two weeks" to "she's out sick, call next week" and then "She's on a course, call in a week".

I tried her section sargent, same thing... drew a blank.

I wrote to her super-intendent seeking an appointment, he couldn't accomodate me.

I'd a similar situation a few year's ago when my motorbike was stolen. I seen a guy on it in town, pulled him off and held him until the police arrived.

Guess what, the guard LET HIM DRIVE IT AWAY!!!. And then it was a similar job trying to locate the cop. Of course the lazy whore never got back to me, and I never got the bike back.

Lazy, lazy shower of scumbag bastards.

djtechnics1210 · 02-11-2008 3:17pm

comments like that posted about ES members is disgraceful no matter what happened to the person. Find the part about the member letting him drive away on a stolen bike a bit far fetched too.

Hagar · 02-11-2008 3:19pm

djtechnics1210 wrote: »

How is someone a mod with comments like that posted.. disgraceful. Find the part about the member letting him drive away on a stolen bike a bit far fetched too.

Mairt isn't a mod. Even if he were, mods have opinions too, surprisingly diverse opinions.

djtechnics1210 · 02-11-2008 3:24pm

Hagar wrote: »

Mairt isn't a mod. Even if he were, mods have opinions too, surprisingly diverse opinions.

I edited that hagar.. my bad... i only realised after i had posted it... apologies.

Hogzy · 02-11-2008 3:28pm

I think the Gardai are a very un professional police force. I base this on my dealings with police force in different countries in which iv had in recent years. I constantly see them breaking the law when it comes to driving.Eg stopping on yellow boxes, speeding without using sirens, constantly having broken headlights etc etc. however my most recent dealings with them has lowered my opinion of them altogether...

I keep foreign students in my home and last week when washing their clothes i found a Laser card from an Irish man. The students i kept at that time seemed a little dodgy (wont go into why i thought that) so i decided to bring the laser card to the Gardai (Douglas Garda Station, Cork). When i brought it to them they told me there was nothing they could do and for me to contact the bank. I told him that it was the job of the Gardai to make such investigations as i reasonably believed the card to be stolen. Eventually he just took the card off me, however i asked him to contact me if the card was indeed stolen as i would not like to keep the students in my home if they were thieves. This is the most recent dealings with a gardai in which i felt absolutly apauled by their lack of effort to carryout their duties. Totally and utterly unprofessional experience!!!

However i know there are gardai who are excellent at their job such as detectives! however alot of the uniformed gardai i believe to be on power trips and to be quite discourtious!

eth0_ · 02-11-2008 3:29pm

I think the Gardai are crap. But not because they're lazy or afraid - it's because they have not got enough power to do their job properly.

I was horrified yet again by the behaviour of people on Halloween night this year. The sheer amount of wanton vandalism, assault, arson was incredible. People wouldn't do this if they had any respect or a healthy level of fear of the gardai and the courts in Ireland.

I'm moving to Edinburgh next week, and there was nothing like the scale of incidents there that we saw in Dublin most years.

Profiler · 02-11-2008 3:32pm

I know you can't have a poll answer for everyone's opinion but I put down that I don't trust them. However that is because I feel that I could trust individual Gardai but that when it comes to a matter where I have an complaint against a member then it is a waste of time.

I have two friends (one close and one not so) who are serving members and I do trust them and I know from what they tell me how hard their job is, one I wouldn't do for twice the money.

However one of them gave me some advice on a situation where I witnessed a two serving members break the law (not a really serious crime but clearly a crime never the less)

I gave the details of this situation to my friend who did a wee bit of digging and the end result was her advice to me was if I wanted to complain she understood however as a friend her advice to me was not to complain because of the two individuals "standing in the force"

CLADA · 02-11-2008 3:42pm

Hagar wrote: »

For emphasis I'll un-spin the results.

19% are not satisfied with the overall service provided to the community.

9% desrcibed Gardaí at their local station as neither ‘very approachable’ nor ‘approachable’.

18% felt that the Gardaí did not do a good job in the locality, although satisfaction rates were found to be lower among local authority tenants compared with other housing tenure categories.

I'm gutted. There was me thinking

81% were satisfied with the overall service provided to the community.

91% described Gardai at their local station as 'very approachable' or 'approachable'

82% felt that the Gardaí did do a good job in the locality, although satisfaction rates were found to be lower among local authority tenants compared with other housing tenure categories.

But thanks for the un-spin:D

kerry4sam · 02-11-2008 3:55pm

How do you perceive the overall work of the Gardai:
Considering that this thread is about our overall preception of AGS i think that singling out a few members of the force for one reason or another is not justified when speaking of the overall work of AGS.

As for me though being honest i have become more informed and wise to the work that is involved by AGS more so over the past year and regret not becoming more familiar sooner. I have found that some people just don’t know exactly what to ‘make of’ their local Gardai but that is because either they don’t want to or don’t have the time to get to know their local Gardai or the work they do.

Gardai have a good rapour with the community as a whole down this way and I can’t find fault in the overall work that AGS do. The younger recruits clearly show their lack of common sense and experience when out on their own, but when accompanied then are a different story. An example here is the mobile phone-if they were to keep their eyes peeled and open to their surroundings, however small a town or village they are stationed in, i believe they will become more savvy and street-smart faster, and the sooner that happens the better imo.

You know it doesn’t take long to form an opinion or make a judgement about someone or people in general but i believe that if people were to weigh up what their preceived opinion of AGS actually is, with some knowledge of what happens behind the scenes when the Gardai are not visible I think you will find some attitudes and opinions will change for the better.

In one sentence: The perception of the overall work of the Gardai is based on peoples’ knowledge and/or ignorance of the work members of An Garda Siochana do; and I just can’t fault the Gardai down my way.

metman · 02-11-2008 4:01pm

It never ceases to amaze me how many posters visit the emergency services forum when there's a chance to Garda-bash that wouldn't bother contributing otherwise. Yawn.

Profiler · 02-11-2008 4:06pm

metman wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how many posters visit the emergency services forum when there's a chance to Garda-bash that wouldn't bother contributing otherwise. Yawn.

Perhaps response like this demonstrate why some feel "contributing otherwise" would not be well received.

Regardless of same the lack of contribution does not make their opinion any less valid.

Paulzx · 02-11-2008 4:12pm

TheNog wrote: »

You have to remember that for non emergency calls such as the arson, we are restricted by traffic as are you. Also the scene of an arson does not necessarily become a matter for the Gardai until after the Fire Brigade have finished with the fire and making the scene safe.

To compare the fire brigade and Garda response times is a little unbalanced because the Fire brigade don't get anywhere near as many calls as the Gardai do. That's my experience of it in the country, don't know about the city but guessing it similar.

One of the biggest problems people have with AGS is the response times. When they report their house has been robbed they get annoyed when it takes 2 days to get a guard to the house. Now i know that a robbery with no intruder still on the premises is going to be low prioirity due to the lack of risk to the public but this still gets peoples goat up. The fact their space has been violated is of huge importance to them and is of more importance than anything else the local station is dealing with no matter what else is going on.

Comparing Fire brigade and AGS response times is not really possible. In rural areas the fire service do not deal with anywhere near the amount of calls AGS deal with.

In urban areas it is slightly different. I can only speak for Dublin here but i will try and compare call volume. In the station i work in there is no doubt that the nearest Garda station to us get more calls.However, the area we cover as first turnout has 8 Garda stations in it. We have 2 fire appliances and 1 ambo to cover an area with 8 Garda stations. Obviously, there are more than 2 garda cars over this whole area. I'm sure if you had numbers for calls averaged over the whole area it would be similar to the fire calls per appliance.

This is not in any way a dig at AGS. Members are struggling with the resources at their disposal. It is no different to any other job as regards the cross section of individuals employed. Yes there are plenty of di*?heads in AGS. But it is exactly the same in DFB, Eircom, Intel, AIB or any other walk of life. If you deal with 99 good people in a company and the 100th is a muppet you tend to remember the muppet and talk about him.

Peoples experience of the Guards is going to depend on luck of the draw as regards who deals with your problem. Most memebers of the public might only interact with the Gardai once a year and if they have the misfortune to get the muppet it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. I deal with them regularly through work and see the good and the bad. Thankfully the good seem to be the majority

colly10 · 02-11-2008 4:13pm

Think this poll needs somewhere in between

TheNog · 02-11-2008 4:18pm

Hogzy wrote: »

I think the Gardai are a very un professional police force. I base this on my dealings with police force in different countries in which iv had in recent years. I constantly see them breaking the law when it comes to driving.Eg stopping on yellow boxes, speeding without using sirens, constantly having broken headlights etc etc. however my most recent dealings with them has lowered my opinion of them altogether...

Gardai are exempt from most traffic laws to carry out our duties but in doing so we must not put the safety of ourselves or others at severe risk. Most of our calls while may be a priority do not require lights and sirens. Having said that any type of speeding does carry an element of risk but it is minimising that risk to the public is what people don't see.
Ambulance and Fire Brigade have the same exemption as us but usually they have the lights and sirens on cos their vehicles are bigger and slower than ours. Also to note that at times I prefer not to have lights and sirens on because alot of people on the road do not know what to do when they see us coming behind them and they panic. Sometimes that creates a dangerous and unncessary situation for us and them.

Hogzy wrote: »

I keep foreign students in my home and last week when washing their clothes i found a Laser card from an Irish man. The students i kept at that time seemed a little dodgy (wont go into why i thought that) so i decided to bring the laser card to the Gardai (Douglas Garda Station, Cork). When i brought it to them they told me there was nothing they could do and for me to contact the bank. I told him that it was the job of the Gardai to make such investigations as i reasonably believed the card to be stolen. Eventually he just took the card off me, however i asked him to contact me if the card was indeed stolen as i would not like to keep the students in my home if they were thieves. This is the most recent dealings with a gardai in which i felt absolutly apauled by their lack of effort to carryout their duties. Totally and utterly unprofessional experience!!!

If the card was not reported stolen, there is nothing we can do about it at all. We cannot start an investigation off the bat unless someone reports it and it is up to them to do it. We can force anyone to make a report either.

As for the bank card I say fair play to you for reporting it. If a complaint of theft had been made then you would have been key in solving it. As for reporting it to the bank, yes you or anyone else could do that. The bank usually tells us to destroy the card and they notify the card holder.

Hogzy wrote: »

However i know there are gardai who are excellent at their job such as detectives! however alot of the uniformed gardai i believe to be on power trips and to be quite discourtious!

Some uniformed are prats but most are not. Also maybe factor in having a bad day on the job (god only knows we do have them).

eth0_ wrote: »

I think the Gardai are crap. But not because they're lazy or afraid - it's because they have not got enough power to do their job properly.

I was horrified yet again by the behaviour of people on Halloween night this year. The sheer amount of wanton vandalism, assault, arson was incredible. People wouldn't do this if they had any respect or a healthy level of fear of the gardai and the courts in Ireland.

I'm moving to Edinburgh next week, and there was nothing like the scale of incidents there that we saw in Dublin most years.

Any more powers given to us would create an uproar with the civil liberty groups. People have a tendancy to think we can arrest anyone and everyone for any offence which is not the case nor would it be efficient to do so. Some people also think they can tell to arrest a person which is also not the case.

As for the wanton violence, you will find that most people who cause those problems have been before the courts several times. Each time they appear the judge orders a probation report but there is not enough funding for the Probation Service and if they are sent to prison there is not enough funding to rehabilitate them so they are back on the streets again causing the same problems. We bring back to court again and the cycle begins again. But who comes out worse for this? The injured party of course but somewhere we tend to get the blame for it.

Profiler wrote: »

I know you can't have a poll answer for everyone's opinion but I put down that I don't trust them. However that is because I feel that I could trust individual Gardai but that when it comes to a matter where I have an complaint against a member then it is a waste of time.

I have two friends (one close and one not so) who are serving members and I do trust them and I know from what they tell me how hard their job is, one I wouldn't do for twice the money.

However one of them gave me some advice on a situation where I witnessed a two serving members break the law (not a really serious crime but clearly a crime never the less)

I gave the details of this situation to my friend who did a wee bit of digging and the end result was her advice to me was if I wanted to complain she understood however as a friend her advice to me was not to complain because of the two individuals "standing in the force"

My advice to you is to make your complaint to the Ombudsman. If you are harassed then catalogue any or all incidents which then makes your case stronger.

No one should be in fear when reporting a Garda for misconduct.

Odysseus · 02-11-2008 4:20pm

I voted yes, however if there was an option for I trust them more than I did 15 to 20 years ago thats the one I would have gone for. Just from my experience I have seen a much needed increase in the professionalism of the members that I come into contact with.

TheNog · 02-11-2008 4:25pm

Profiler wrote: »

Perhaps response like this demonstrate why some feel "contributing otherwise" would not be well received.

Regardless of same the lack of contribution does not make their opinion any less valid.

This forum has always been open to everyone to ask questions or pass comments so long as they are open to how we regularly deal with problems we encounter and more importantly why we deal with the problems the way that we do.

Many people who are not in any Emergency Service have come here before you and gone away happy and enlightened.

TheNog · 02-11-2008 4:26pm

Hagar wrote: »

The poll results above, 8 trust, 12 don't, are surprising accurate compared to the Irish Times poll.

Looks like the tide is changing in the polls

donvito99 · 02-11-2008 4:28pm

I trust the Gardai. I have fortunately only had to deal with them once or twice (traffic collision, lost me phone) however, in both those incidents I've noticed a serious lack of facilities, equipment and manpower. If this could be improved, I think the public perception would do so aswell.

I also agree with Metman when he says that the only time some posters come to the ES forum is when they can Garda-Bash. Tut Tut.

Jay112 · 02-11-2008 4:34pm

Well said Donvito, Couldnt agree more with the last part! always the same, genaralising, and bashing at every oppertunity given.

Some think nearly all uniformed gardai are on powertrips from just 2 or 3 experiences with them :rolleyes:

metman · 02-11-2008 4:51pm

Profiler wrote: »

Perhaps response like this demonstrate why some feel "contributing otherwise" would not be well received.

Regardless of same the lack of contribution does not make their opinion any less valid.

On the contrary, if said posters were regular contributors then perhaps their negative comments would appear less like flaming and be afforded more weight.

Posters who parachute in solely to berate and criticise and are then surprised when not taken seriously, should engage more and flame less.

yayamark · 02-11-2008 4:52pm

oops i voted without reading Nogs post

Sorry

I voted yes btw

Profiler · 02-11-2008 4:58pm

metman wrote: »

On the contrary, if said posters were regular contributors then perhaps their negative comments would appear less like flaming and be afforded more weight.

Posters who parachute in solely to berate and criticise and are then surprised when not taken seriously, should engage more and flame less.

So everyone is flaming until proven otherwise? or in other words guilty until proven innocent...

metman · 02-11-2008 5:04pm

Profiler wrote: »

So everyone is flaming until proven otherwise? or in other words guilty until proven innocent...

"Everyone", would you care to be even more vague?

Contribute more, flame less. Rinse and repeat.

airscotty · 02-11-2008 5:13pm

TheNog wrote: »

TBH the taking of your name and address and the car details is standard enough.

I have no problem with giving any old detail they want!! Its the 'attatude' i repeatidly face when dealing with the guards that annoys me.

Hagar · 02-11-2008 5:19pm

metman wrote: »

On the contrary, if said posters were regular contributors then perhaps their negative comments would appear less like flaming and be afforded more weight.

I read the forum everyday but I don't post there as I don't like the clannishness of the serving Gardaí. When I did voice my views I got accused of flaming just because my opinion is out of step with the serving members. One poster even said "I'll talk to ES personal about ES situations". That sort of dismissiveness is what colours people's opinion of the Gardaí. A little public civility would be nice.

/edit Kudos to TheNog on the modding and splitting off of posts to make this thread.

metman · 02-11-2008 5:36pm

Hagar wrote: »

I read the forum everyday but I don't post there as I don't like the clannishness of the serving Gardaí. When I did voice my views I got accused of flaming just because my opinion is out of step with the serving members. One poster even said "I'll talk to ES personal about ES situations". That sort of dismissiveness is what colours people's opinion of the Gardaí. A little public civility would be nice.

I take the view that the more people that post on this forum the better. I couldn't care less what their background is, as it all makes for a livelier debate.

What I do tire off however are those that jump on the bandwagon as soon as a thread opens up wherein the anti brigade can put the boot in, so to speak. There are those in society that no matter what the circumstances will never have anything positive to say about the police and in fact go out of their way to put the boot in, everything from a negative comment on this forum, right up to attacking an officer on the street. On a medium like the internet it is often difficult to distinguish genuinely aggrieved from malicious anti-police types.

I, like most people serving and non-serving, recognise that the boys in blue are far from perfect and I know that some people have genuine issues and complaints about the police. However I also see and hear a lot of spurious rubbish written on sites like this, designed to agitate or flame. This does nothing to assist joe public, police or relations between both sections of the community and I have little time for entertaining it.

Profiler · 02-11-2008 5:48pm

metman wrote: »

I take the view that the more people that post on this forum the better.

That's different to what you said above which was that you would only give credence to their opinion if they were regular posters.

" if said posters were regular contributors perhaps their negative comments would appear less like flaming and be afforded more weight"

metman wrote: »

On a medium like the internet it is often difficult to distinguish genuinely aggrieved from malicious anti-police types.

Just as it is difficult on here to distinguish from the vast vast majority of decent hardworking men and women of the Garda from the few rotten apples that make life more difficult for the entire force.

metman wrote: »

I, like most people serving and non-serving, recognise that the boys in blue are far from perfect and I know that some people have genuine issues and complaints about the police. However I also see and hear a lot of spurious rubbish written on sites like this, designed to agitate or flame. This does nothing to assist joe public, police or relations between both sections of the community and I have little time for entertaining it.

If you are going to be consistant then you will have to recgonise that dismissive and condescending attitudes like the ones you have put up here result in ordinary members of the pubic having "little time for entertaining" you.

Hogzy · 02-11-2008 5:48pm

TheNog wrote: »

If the card was not reported stolen, there is nothing we can do about it at all. We cannot start an investigation off the bat unless someone reports it and it is up to them to do it. We can force anyone to make a report either.

Thats my issue the garda didnt check to see if the card was in fact reported stolen he just told me get onto the bank. Sorry if i didnt make that clear in my above post!

How do you perceive the overall work of the Gardai

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