Do I have a right to view a Garda incident report concerning me

Gitzy

Hi,
I have a quick question regarding a situation I am in. My house was burgled yesterday with some items and cash stolen. Garda were called and did their thing with questions to myself / wife , neighbours etc regarding the burglary and writing things into their notebooks. CSI came and went also later on. No leads at the moment I understand.

On talking to my home contents insurer they indicated a date which an assessor will come out and also wanted to know the incident report number or Garda point of contact filed by the garda for the incident.

My question is: Do I have a right to view/ get a copy of the incident report filed by the Gardai or is this information privilaged to the garda and my insurer. I've never been in this situation before so I dont know what to expect from any of the parties listed here. I feel like I could be at a disadvantage on meeting with my insurer assessor if they have viewed the incident report and I haven't.

Only reply if your have direct experience of this type of situation or if you actually know for a fact if I can view/copy the incident report.

Any ideas???

vasch_ro

Basically what happens is the gardai log the incident of the datebase (Pulse) then a letter is automatically printed with a Pulse Incident number (crime report no.) this is signed by the local Superintendent and posted to you for insurance purposes. It contains the name of the garda dealing with your case. It is an incident report of sorts with brief details on it.

You pass this on to the insurance. (i.e. you get it not the insurance company)

Your insurance company may contact the Garda concerned to verfy that the amount you are claiming is correct ( hence the pulse letter), or they may supply you with another form to get stamped in the station to verify the amount. When you go to the station present the letter , the Garda can verify details and stamp away.It is more or less a formality.

Lastly some people forget to print out the letter from the system, so if you hear nothing in a week or two follow it up, the Gardai at your house should have left a calling card.Hope that answers your question and sorry to hear about the burgalry.


PS :Hopefully we won't have to wait another five years for your next post !:)

pirelli

:eek: :eek: :eek:
Five years... Congratulations

P.s Did the gardai take photographs and fingerprint's while there.


:mad:

Gitzy

Vasc-ro, thanks for the comprehensive reply. I didn't realise there was so much to and fro with the written account of the incident. The assessor is calling around on Tuesday. It probably would be a good idea to speed things up if I had this "incident letter" for him.


My wife went into the garda station yesterday to get the incident details on file by the garda and what she got was a hand written script that says that my address was broken into and that the garda such and such responded to the incident on such as date. Stamped by the station.

Is what the insurance folks are looking for only really a verification of the incident actually happening and what was taken from the house that is in this letter? Would the incident report/letter possibly have details on it concerning if the house alarm was armed/faulty/went off etc??? Unchartered territory for me dealing with insurance assessors, don't have a clue what to expect from them???