Gardaí campaign for next two weeks?

element05

Howdy,

I heard yesterday that the Gardaí will be running a campaign for the next two weeks to crack down on speeding and so-forth, which will involve putting random checkpoints on major roads around the country... did anyone else hear this?

John

kippy

Yep-It was on the news a couple of nights ago....
Operation *insert random name here*

Theres probably more about it on the news websites.
I think it may actually have been in a local paper I spotted it.

renmorescout

Yeah, Saw two checkpoints on the Ballybane road, in Galway, in the last 12 hours !! One at 10pm last night, and one this morning at 7:45 !
Some one must of put a rocket under them !!

elexes

the thing i find weird is there going to be out in force for a short period of time then after they will not be seen for months because they will of used up the budget for most of the year or have to much paperwork to ignore .

mondeoman

very clever of them to warn us all about it:rolleyes: ,so the muppets on our road will be on their best behaviour till its finished:(

Louisiana

renmorescout wrote:

Some one must of put a rocket under them !!

i think it was prob Captin Gaybo. its a two week blitz cause they can only forecast this nice weather to last in the short term.

Henry Ford III

These camapaigns are stupid. It should be 24/7.

mike65

Been on the roads as ever both days so far and seen nothing.

Mike.

Kersh

There will be loads of 'shooting fish in a barrell' around the airport this weekend, as the cops , as usual target the boy racers, they will meet their quota that day alright, cos the boy races never cop on to it. - i see it every year.

Stephen

i've been stopped at checkpoints twice this week... both at the same place. The first time the garda in question asked why I had no tax, I explained that I only bought the car a couple of weeks ago and that the paperwork hadn't come back yet, hence I can't tax it and he let me go on my way.

The next guy decided to be a complete a$$hole about it. Despite me having the SIMI sale agreement papers and an insurance disc with the same commencement date, he decided to be a prick and threaten me :rolleyes:

element05

Hmm, I've spoken to a few people about this since, and they had heard it was only a two day operation, not a two week one - anyone know which one it is for sure?

mike65

Its two days.

Mike.

Victor

How do you make a minefield? Put up some notices and issue a press release.

mondeoman wrote:

very clever of them to warn us all about it:rolleyes: ,so the muppets on our road will be on their best behaviour till its finished:(

No, its actually a common tactic in other countries to warn people that the police will be concentrating on roads X, Y & Z today. Then the muppets have absolutely no excuse.

Litcagral

mike65 wrote:

Been on the roads as ever both days so far and seen nothing.

Mike.

I was stopped at a large checkpoint on the N3 near Navan yesterday morning. As well as the Gardai, there were people with clip boards and 'Meath Co Co' high visibility vests. They seemed to be concentrating on trucks.

ciarsd

Litcagral wrote:

I was stopped at a large checkpoint on the N3 near Navan yesterday morning. As well as the Gardai, there were people with clip boards and 'Meath Co Co' high visibility vests. They seemed to be concentrating on trucks.

possibly a customs checkpoint - maybe even dipping fuel tanks? (all pure speculation of course!)

now that you mention the N3 - Pg 5 of the Evening Herald runs a report on the speed traps in North County Dublin - basically their so under staffed at present, they are supposidly taken a lenient approach to the 50KMH limits and are having severe trouble processing samples for suspected drink driving in Blanch station, such is the backlog! :rolleyes:

I've said it once, I'll say it again - the Garda should be all out on the roads/on the beat/on patrol - being visible, not spending their hours behind a desk doing mundane admin tasks and report writing!

Rudolph Claus

Pity they dont have a 2day anti-burgling campaign. Or a 2day clampdown on random acts of violence and thuggery on the streets.
They`d make you laugh, you never hear them whinging about the amount of nighttime violence outside clubs and stuff but i suppose that`d be too much like work for them. Much more comfortable if they can be out catching easy motorists for (lets be honest) mainly trivial minor offenses.

Victor

Nuttzy wrote:

Pity they dont have a 2day anti-burgling campaign. Or a 2day clampdown on random acts of violence and thuggery on the streets.
They`d make you laugh, you never hear them whinging about the amount of nighttime violence outside clubs and stuff but i suppose that`d be too much like work for them. Much more comfortable if they can be out catching easy motorists for (lets be honest) mainly trivial minor offenses.

Homocide: 70 deaths per year
Road traffic: 400 deaths per year

jetsonx

ciarsd wrote:

I've said it once, I'll say it again - the Garda should be all out on the roads/on the beat/on patrol - being visible, not spending their hours behind a desk doing mundane admin tasks and report writing!

being visible does not not equate with productivity...lets face it check points
must be the easiest thing for them do do. "Ok, lads nothing to do we'll do a check point"...sure its looks good, the goverment like it etc but what about the raison d'etre of any police force - fighting crime. I think this aspect is being ignored...every time I switch on Six-One there is another body-bag being wheeled away....where is their visibility at 4am in any of our City Centres - no where to be seen of course. Where is their visibility on our secondary roads late at night, where a substanial number of accidents occur - again, nowhere to be seen.

ciarsd

jetsonx wrote:

being visible does not not equate with productivity...lets face it check points
must be the easiest thing for them do do. "Ok, lads nothing to do we'll do a check point"...sure its looks good, the goverment like it etc but what about the raison d'etre of any police force - fighting crime. I think this aspect is being ignored...every time I switch on Six-One there is another body-bag being wheeled away....where is their visibility at 4am in any of our City Centres - no where to be seen of course. Where is their visibility on our secondary roads late at night, where a substanial number of accidents occur - again, nowhere to be seen.

While I agree with some of your comments, I didnt want to venture down this route in the motors forum - hence keeping my view on it, leaning towards the roads aspect of it

Turner

jetsonx wrote:

where is their visibility at 4am in any of our City Centres - no where to be seen of course. Where is their visibility on our secondary roads late at night, where a substanial number of accidents occur - again, nowhere to be seen.

Trust me they are busy, a little insight into the night shift of a Garda station with maybe 2 or 3 cars with 2 gards in each and 2 gards in the station.

Dealing with drink drivers (takes about 1 hour)
Attending drink fuelled fights/domestics
Dealing with suicides (can take the whole night)
Dealing with public order prisoners (takes anywhere from 30mins to 2 hrs)
Dealing with sudden deaths, any death that occurs in their district (can take most of the night)
Interviewing using video recording equipment (1-2 hrs)
Minding prisoners in stations (most of whom are on the verge of death due to drink and drugs and large amount who turn suicidal once put into a cell; lets say 10 prisoners, each has to be checked every 15mins and written record kept of each check)
Executing search warrants (1-2 hrs)

Or as most people like to think it goes....

Eating doughnuts (8 hours)

maidhc

They were out on the Cork Dublin road near Fermoy.

It was dark, dreary and raining steady. Rotten dangerous stretch too and the road was slippy. Fair play, policing as it should be.

jetsonx

maidhc wrote:

They were out on the Cork Dublin road near Fermoy.

It was dark, dreary and raining steady. Rotten dangerous stretch too and the road was slippy. Fair play, policing as it should be.

I did'nt know they had a chipper or a Dunkin Donuts there.

gyppo

Its unfortunate that the garda campaign is only 2 days/weeks - whatever. In reality it should be 365 days/52 weeks. When you look at the ongoing carnage on the roads, this campaign is likely to be a drop in the ocean. However, having said that, if it succeeds in saving 1 life, it will be worth it.

Remember when the penalty points were first introduced - everyone (almost) started to drive more carefully, ie. within the speed limits. And after a month or so, we were back to where we started. I can't see how road campaigns of limited duration will be any different.

I'm not poking a finger at the guards here - Its our government and Minister for Justice that need to account for themselves. Perhaps it would be more in Mr McDowells line to forget about a reserve police force, employ civilians to carry out the paperwork/administration, and let the guards do their job, without having to be tied to deskwork. While he's at it, expand the police force too.

BTW, I am not a guard!