[Article] 400 gardaí set to be redeployed

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0913/gardai.html

400 gardaí set to be redeployed

13 September 2004 17:51
Transport Minister Séamus Brennan has confirmed that up to 400 gardaí are to be taken off fine collection duties and redeployed in other areas, including road safety.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Mr Brennan said new legislation would allow the collection of fines to be carried out under contract by a private company.

He said this would allow for the redeployment of several hundred gardaí, some of whom would be drafted into a new dedicated traffic corps.

mike65

I was shocked and stunned when I heard this but then why should it be a surprise that a valuble resourse is being frittered away collecting fines!

Mike.

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3991782?view=Eircomnet

Radical step to see 400 gardai re-deployed for traffic corps
From:The Irish Independent
Monday, 13th September, 2004

AS many as 400 gardai are to be axed from fine collection duties and re-deployed on road safety under a radical overhaul of the force, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan revealed last night.

And the existing 580 gardai who carry out traffic duties but are often called away on other jobs are to work exclusively on traffic matters.

They are to be "re-branded" with special caps and uniforms in a last-ditch attempt to create a Garda Traffic Corps promised in the Programme for Government.

As anger mounts over the way top garda management deploy "sneaky" speed detections on safe motorways and totally ignore the dangerous main and back roads where most crashes are occurring, it emerged last night that up to 400 gardai will no longer have to collect traffic and speeding fines.

This service is being privatised and handed over to a company which has already been selected following a tender process.

Gardai are also to be issued with mini, hand-held computers which will allow them to input the vital details of rogue motorists who break the law. This will end hours of tedious paperwork.

Dangerous overtaking is to become a penalty points offence when the garda penalty points computer, dogged by delays because of official pennypinching, finally goes on line at the end of this year, according to Mr Brennan.

The radical measures will be outlined at a crisis summit convened by the minister on September 22, to be attended by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, and State road safety agencies.

Commissioner Conroy will be ordered to concentrate gardai on these key accident blackspots to reduce the incidence of young drivers being killed in single vehicle crashes.

Mr Brennan yesterday lashed out at the targeting of speeding drivers on motorways at a time when 97pc of fatalities were happening on the dangerous country roads, mainly in the early hours of weekends. International road safety experts have told the Government that Ireland totally lacks the widescale, high-visibility police deterrent that exists in Britain, Sweden and other countries which have dramatically cut their road deaths.

Mr Brennan said last night it was clear large numbers of people were being killed on back roads at weekends, and the particular "danger spots" were known. While gardai were doing a good job, they needed to concentrate more on the back roads where many of the fatalities were taking place.

The minister said he had held a number of meetings with the Justice Minister and they were now examining taking the 500 to 600 gardai involved in road traffic duties and making them the basis for a new traffic corps.

"We are looking at giving them an identifiable mark, like a special vest or cap," Mr Brennan said last night.

The minister said that "hundreds" of gardai could be re-assigned to road traffic duties when the private company takes over the collection of fines.

Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

chewy

september 22nd

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3991782?view=Eircomnet

Radical step to see 400 gardai re-deployed for traffic corps
From:The Irish Independent
Monday, 13th September, 2004

AS many as 400 gardai are to be axed from fine collection duties and re-deployed on road safety under a radical overhaul of the force, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan revealed last night.

And the existing 580 gardai who carry out traffic duties but are often called away on other jobs are to work exclusively on traffic matters.

They are to be "re-branded" with special caps and uniforms in a last-ditch attempt to create a Garda Traffic Corps promised in the Programme for Government.

As anger mounts over the way top garda management deploy "sneaky" speed detections on safe motorways and totally ignore the dangerous main and back roads where most crashes are occurring, it emerged last night that up to 400 gardai will no longer have to collect traffic and speeding fines.

This service is being privatised and handed over to a company which has already been selected following a tender process.

Gardai are also to be issued with mini, hand-held computers which will allow them to input the vital details of rogue motorists who break the law. This will end hours of tedious paperwork.

Dangerous overtaking is to become a penalty points offence when the garda penalty points computer, dogged by delays because of official pennypinching, finally goes on line at the end of this year, according to Mr Brennan.

The radical measures will be outlined at a crisis summit convened by the minister on September 22, to be attended by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, and State road safety agencies.

Commissioner Conroy will be ordered to concentrate gardai on these key accident blackspots to reduce the incidence of young drivers being killed in single vehicle crashes.

Mr Brennan yesterday lashed out at the targeting of speeding drivers on motorways at a time when 97pc of fatalities were happening on the dangerous country roads, mainly in the early hours of weekends. International road safety experts have told the Government that Ireland totally lacks the widescale, high-visibility police deterrent that exists in Britain, Sweden and other countries which have dramatically cut their road deaths.

Mr Brennan said last night it was clear large numbers of people were being killed on back roads at weekends, and the particular "danger spots" were known. While gardai were doing a good job, they needed to concentrate more on the back roads where many of the fatalities were taking place.

The minister said he had held a number of meetings with the Justice Minister and they were now examining taking the 500 to 600 gardai involved in road traffic duties and making them the basis for a new traffic corps.

"We are looking at giving them an identifiable mark, like a special vest or cap," Mr Brennan said last night.

The minister said that "hundreds" of gardai could be re-assigned to road traffic duties when the private company takes over the collection of fines.

Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

kaiphas

I find this hard to believe. How will they get 400 coppers all to fit under the bridge at the Watergrasshill Bypass??

Victor

kaiphas wrote:

I find this hard to believe. How will they get 400 coppers all to fit under the bridge at the Watergrasshill Bypass??

Shift work, finishing up time back at the station and doughnut breaks.

dowlingm

who wants to be the first thousand tickets issued on handheld computers will be thrown out by a district court judge for lack of receipts, the wind from the north or the 1861 Offences against Poultry Act?