How would you change policing in Galway?

snubbleste

There is an open meeting of the Joint Policing Committee on the 13th May in the Meyrick. This is a venture between the Garda and the City Council to decide on policing initiatives and matters affecting the policing of Galway. People can submit their queries to City Hall by Tuesday 6th to be included on the agenda or bring them up at the meeting. Issues include
traffic, parking, vandalism, anti-social behaviour, underage drinking, casual trading, crime prevention etc.

So, what would you like to see happen for a better Galway?

Sherifu

More patrols at night around the drinking areas.

JohnCleary

More Garda presence around the Docks/Long Walk area, far too many people falling into the water there after a night out. There's also eejits throwing bottles at the boat in the Docks, pure vandalism

Cole

More patrols and presence in general.

As someone who moved to Galway, the lack of a visible Garda presence is very obvious..particularly on the roads.

In two years, I have seen 1 speedtrap and encountered 2 checkpoints! I can be that specific because it is so rare.

Maybe it explains the terrible driving around the city..I'll restrain myself from going off on a rant about the manoeuvres I see everyday on the roundabouts.

DeadSkin

Cole wrote: »

More patrols and presence in general.

As someone who moved to Galway, the lack of a visible Garda presence is very obvious..particularly on the roads.

In two years, I have seen 1 speedtrap and encountered 2 checkpoints! I can be that specific because it is so rare.

Maybe it explains the terrible driving around the city..I'll restrain myself from going off on a rant about the manoeuvres I see everyday on the roundabouts.

Yep, definitely. Everyday I meet a$$holes on the road taking stupid chances, a$$holes using their phones while driving, a$$holes with their kids let loose on the back seat while doin' 100kph down a dual carriageway, a$$holes turning left onto a main road up the hard shoulder without stopping at the junction.
I've been driving 8/9 years in Galway and easily, I could count the number of checkpoints on my two hands. Traffic Corps my ar$e!!!!
Apologies for the rant , but we do need a bigger Traffic Corps present on the roads, it's the only way a$$holes can be prevented from endangering people's lives.

cornbb

- More of a clampdown on antisocial behaviour (i.e. drunken tards) at flashpoints like Eyre Square and Dominick st. Last Fri evening I watched 3 gardai spend far too much time writing tickets for taxi drivers on Cross st. and knew they're be nowhere to be seen when people are genuinely acting the maggot later at night.

(On a positive note, I was drinking cans at the Spanish Arch years ago (before moving here) and a plain clothes garda approached. Instead of confiscating our booze and moving us along he just politely asked that we made sure to bin our cans when we were finished. This is an excellent, sensible approach and I'm glad they treat people who are not drunk or causing trouble with respect.)

- More traffic corps on the roads of galway. I never, ever see speed traps or breathalyser checkpoints around Galway whereas they are a lot more visible in Cork or Limerick. I'm not a fan of speed traps but a more visible traffic corps might cut down on the number of tailgaters, drink drivers and other muppetty road users.

Weidii

More policing around the salthill area. Every night I've been out there in the last two weeks there have been eggs on the ground and I've had eggs thrown at me from cars on more than one occasion too.

Zzippy

+1 for the traffic corps, I've never ever been stopped at a checkpoint in the city, and I've been living here 4 years now.
Increased patrols along the river walk from Jurys up to Newtownsmyth, thats a no go area at night.
Oh yeah, and prosecute cyclists who go around without a light on their bike at night, ****in muppets!

sgthighway

Traffic Corps was suposed to be a Traffic Corps and thats what they should be sole purpose. Where did all the extra Gardai for the Aran Islands come from;)

I think an extra effort needs to be put into stopping the Drug Suppliers and Sellers. That is going to be Galway's biggest problem.

biko

More walking patrols, best info service and/or crime deterrent.

Tar.Aldarion

No, we like that.

They need to enforce the rules regarding teenage drinking a lot more. Too many times during the summer would you see them in Eyre Square drinking and the Gardai doing nothing.

They need to clamp down on boyracers

Rossibaby

in sligo after a night out i counted 7 pairs of gardai within 3 streets of each other when it was closing time around half 2.galway should have something similar as literally no gards are around.there should be 4 on shop street and 4 gards on eyre square.the amount of times i've seen drunks and hobo's getting rotten and annoying people is outrageous in eyre square,not a gard in sight.
plus since i've come to college in galway this year i have had several dealers come upto me asking do i want anything.'Tar' will argue it's my appearance that makes this happen but it's obvious there is a serious lack of gardai in galway city.
good point made about the docks,and other palces with ledges around water in galway,fences should be erected

JohnCleary

Deleted User wrote: »

They need to enforce the rules regarding teenage drinking a lot more. Too many times during the summer would you see them in Eyre Square drinking and the Gardai doing nothing.

Dude, those drunk underage girls are about the only change you dorks have of losing your virginity.... be careful what you ask to be enforced or one of you lot could be starring in 'The 40 year old virgin 2"

gd1987

Deleted User wrote: »

They need to clamp down on boyracers

Thats a cliche at this stage, besides the gaurds have clamped down on boy racers, a lot of them have been banned.

They should have more patrols around town on friday & saturday nights, not just
Eyre Square either!

ciotog

Plenty of boy racers still around! I have the fun of staying out of their way when cycling. There are still far too many drivers going far too fast for the conditions on several of the Galway roads, so more traffic patrols would be great. Agree with clamping down on the cyclists who aren't appropriately visible (be it lights or high-visibility clothing) - confiscate the bike and be done with it. Same approach should be taken for problem drivers.

CliffHuxtabel

JohnCleary wrote: »

Dude, those drunk underage girls are about the only change you dorks have of losing your virginity.... be careful what you ask to be enforced or one of you lot could be starring in 'The 40 year old virgin 2"

:D:D:D:D

good one JC

CliffHuxtabel

I would give the cops carte blanche to beat the sh*t out of people who cycle on the footpath (and make it look like theyre doing you a favour by letting you past)

:mad::mad::mad:

CliffHuxtabel

biko wrote: »

More walking patrols, best info service and/or crime deterrent.

and drug-dealerrrrr....keeper-awayer

Mrs OBumble

It could be rather nice if some of the guards were actually on duty and enforcing laws during Rag Week.

I haven't seen a Race Week as yet, but they tell me it's like Rag Week for adults ... and in that case, come guards during Race Week would be nice too.

po0k

Race week is a good time to get out of Galway.
Too many construction suits gushing over each other.
And people wearing silly hats.

gd1987

gd1987 wrote: »

Thats a cliche at this stage, besides the gaurds have clamped down on boy racers, a lot of them have been banned.

They should have more patrols around town on friday & saturday nights, not just
Eyre Square either!

Try telling that to the people in Prospect Hill/St Bridgets Place/Galway Shopping Centre. They're still a huge nuisance.

Originally Posted by JohnCleary
Dude, those drunk underage girls are about the only change you dorks have of losing your virginity.... be careful what you ask to be enforced or one of you lot could be starring in 'The 40 year old virgin 2

Oh right. I'm a virgin again.

Damn. I could've sworn I got rid of that years ago

It could be rather nice if some of the guards were actually on duty and enforcing laws during Rag Week.

I haven't seen a Race Week as yet, but they tell me it's like Rag Week for adults ... and in that case, come guards during Race Week would be nice too.

Did they not have a huge police force out for Race Week last year? I seem to partially remember there being barricades on every route into Shop Street

Zzippy

JustMary wrote: »

It could be rather nice if some of the guards were actually on duty and enforcing laws during Rag Week.

I haven't seen a Race Week as yet, but they tell me it's like Rag Week for adults ... and in that case, come guards during Race Week would be nice too.

It would also be rather nice if you were here for race week so you knew what you were talking about, instead of basing your opinion on something "they tell me".... :rolleyes:
There are loads of extra gardai drafted in for race week, and for the number of people in the city that week, there are amazingly few incidents.

chris_oc

cornbb wrote: »

(On a positive note, I was drinking cans at the Spanish Arch years ago (before moving here) and a plain clothes garda approached. Instead of confiscating our booze and moving us along he just politely asked that we made sure to bin our cans when we were finished. This is an excellent, sensible approach and I'm glad they treat people who are not drunk or causing trouble with respect.)

Whereas I on the other hand, wasn't treated so kindly about two years ago...

I was having a few quite ones with two mates of mine, sitting on the grass at the spanish arch just minding our own business (not drunk or engaging in any anti-social behaviour whatsoever) when this young garda comes up to us out of the blue and demands that we give him our drinks, which we do, which he then preceeds to spill away right in front of us.

Now my "beef" is not even the fact that he poured our drinks away. He THEN decides to stroll over to my rucksack and paw around at it until he sees an opening and spots the two bottles of vodka in it, pulls them out and pours them away too!!!:eek::eek::eek:
I told him that he couldn't do that because they were closed and in a bag!(had no intention of drinking them there because they were supposed to be for oxygen the next day!)
He told me that he DID in fact have the right to because the galway by-law that if you have an unsealed bag containing alcohol beverages of any sort,opened or not opened, they had the right to confiscate it.

Now my first thoughts were that this power trippin' little sh1t just made it up on the spot so i took his name and told him that i was going to complain about this. so i did...

turns out that the little sh1t was telling the truth!!:eek:

Fcukin galway by law...:mad:

Fcukin power trippin' puberty police:mad:

rant over, sorry bout that lads but i had to let it out:p

chris_oc

Deleted User wrote: »

They need to enforce the rules regarding teenage drinking a lot more. Too many times during the summer would you see them in Eyre Square drinking and the Gardai doing nothing.

sorry bud, have to disagree with you on that one! i recall very fond memories of underage drinking in galway, and tbh, theres nothing like sitting around somewhere in galway(spanish arch, eyre square, even behind the millstreet garda station ffs!!) and drinking a bottle of buckfast!!:p:p
a bit immature i know but hey! i had a great childhood growing up in galway!! god those were the days!!:D Rushnee woods?! anyone with me? some of you at some point must have been bushin in galway at one point or another!:)

Lockstep

Boy racers need to be clamped down on.
I live in Barna and they're a bit of an annoyance.

chris_oc

chris_oc wrote: »

sorry bud, have to disagree with you on that one! i recall very fond memories of underage drinking in galway, and tbh, theres nothing like sitting around somewhere in galway(spanish arch, eyre square, even behind the millstreet garda station ffs!!) and drinking a bottle of buckfast!!:p:p
a bit immature i know but hey! i had a great childhood growing up in galway!! god those were the days!!:D Rushnee woods?! anyone with me? some of you at some point must have been bushin in galway at one point or another!:)

Doesn't matter if you have fond memories. It's still against the law and thus should be clamped down on.

po0k

So boyracers and bushing are the greatest threats to public peace in Galway?

[sarc]For flip's sake! How did things get so flippin' out of hand?[/sarc]

po0k

po0k wrote: »

So boyracers and bushing are the greatest threats to public peace in Galway?

[sarc]For flip's sake! How did things get so flippin' out of hand?[/sarc]

And shotgun wielding travellers with terrible aim.

snubbleste

I went to this meeting last night, it was a bit of a talking shop tbh, could have been better structured. However it was great to see the Garda being challenged by councillors and a few members of the public in relation to the non-enforcement of some vexing issues, namely:
begging on the streets, anti-social behaviour in council/non-council houses especially those with absentee landlords, the non-visibility of the local community garda, boyracers and loud exhausts, lack of speedchecks and illegal parking.

I don't think anybody had a good word to say about Garda policing in Galway.
Apparently this time next year, nobody will think about parking on a footpath or double yellow line according to the superintendent :eek:

cornbb

snubbleste wrote: »

Apparently this time next year, nobody will think about parking on a footpath or double yellow line according to the superintendent :eek:

Would it not occur to them to, you know, go out and arrest a few drunk drivers or reckless boyracers from time to time? Or is illegal parking really getting out of hand to the point that its threatening civilisation as we know it? :eek:

snubbleste

They made the point that those being ticketed will say "why aren't you out catching dealers and paedophiles etc"..
But parking is a huge issue, anyone who has a licence to drive knows it is illegal to park on a footpath, double yellow line at all times! It's just not being enforced enough.
They did say that they had clamped down on boyracers and cases were being brought to court as a previous poster pointed out but not enough. The excuses of 'limited garda resources' came up.
Also it emerged that no ASBOs have been served as of yet in Galway but a number of cautions before the granting of an ASBO have been given out.

cornbb

snubbleste wrote: »

They made the point that those being ticketed will say "why aren't you out catching dealers and paedophiles etc"..
But parking is a huge issue, anyone who has a licence to drive knows it is illegal to park on a footpath, double yellow line at all times! It's just not being enforced enough.
They did say that they had clamped down on boyracers and cases were being brought to court as a previous poster pointed out but not enough. The excuses of 'limited garda resources' came up.
Also it emerged that no ASBOs have been served as of yet in Galway but a number of cautions before the granting of an ASBO have been given out.

No wonder "resources are limited" when they feel the need to commit 3 Gardai to writing tickets to taxi drivers on Cross street! When I say 3 Gardai writing tickets, I mean one Garda writing tickets and the others leaning against a wall and watching him. This is what I've witnessed anyway.

Illegal parking and wrong and no-one likes it but surely this is what traffic wardens should be spending their time at, not Gardai? Wouldn't they be better off going after dangerous drivers, as opposed to drivers who cause a wee bit of inconvenience?

galway008

Did they really need to have a meeting to discover whats wrong.

This is just a pure talking shop paying lip service to the public that turned up and the councillors. I'm sure they went back to the station and had a good laugh about it.

snubbleste

It was a bit of a talking shop, but the Garda and the executive in the Council are'nt really answerable to the public.
At least this meeting showed the frustration that exists with the lack of enforcement of existing laws in relation to certain issues in Galway and try to make the local Garda explain why they choose not to enforce laws.

I'm pretty sure the Garda took the meeting seriously, just by being there and the answers that were given.

Derek_N

I was at the meeting. I thought the public turn out was quite poor, especially given how regularly people voice their dissatisfaction with crime etc. I'd say about 30 people max.

That said, I think its a really good idea - and those at the "top table" - councillors, city officials but especially Gardai did seem to be taking it seriously.

snubbleste

snubbleste wrote: »

I went to this meeting last night, it was a bit of a talking shop tbh, could have been better structured. However it was great to see the Garda being challenged by councillors and a few members of the public in relation to the non-enforcement of some vexing issues, namely:
begging on the streets, anti-social behaviour in council/non-council houses especially those with absentee landlords, the non-visibility of the local community garda, boyracers and loud exhausts, lack of speedchecks and illegal parking.

I'm dragging this thread up to see if the first public policing meeting held last May had any effect.
Have people noticed less beggars, less boy-racers, less noisy exhausts, more speedchecks, more garda visibility and more parking tickets being issued?

kayos

snubbleste wrote: »

I'm dragging this thread up to see if the first public policing meeting held last May had any effect.
Have people noticed less beggars, less boy-racers, less noisy exhausts, more speedchecks, more garda visibility and more parking tickets being issued?

Boy-racers i.e. twats driving far too fast and stupidly they are still there. I’ve not been near the Galway shopping centre at night in months so I don’t know if they have stopped them gathering there.

Loud Exhausts i.e. Well above acceptable levels when driven at normal speed they are still 10 a penny. There is some car around my area (black Honda civic in case you could not guess) and I swear some day I’ll catch him and stick his down pipe of and exhaust up his out pipe!

Beggars? Never really had a problem with them much in Galway but they do seem to have become a more rare sight.

Speed Checks? Seems to be more of them but they all seem to be of the shooting fish in the barrel type. Would prefer to see them on the smaller roads where its just stupid to break the limits rather than the roads where its straight, flat, wide and a dual carriage way.

I would love to see more random check points in Galway I honestly have not seen one in about 4 years.

As for cops on patrol lol you are kidding right? Only time I see cops on foot is when they are walking from the car to the station or visa versa

There does seem to be a lot more undercover cars snooping around the place alright. A couple of times now in the past month myself or the OH have seen cars pulled on the western D road by an unmarked car. The last one we saw the cop had a glove on and was going through the guys jacket on the bonnet of the car. Can only guess that was looking for drugs…

Mrs OBumble

kayos wrote: »

Beggars? Never really had a problem with them much in Galway but they do seem to have become a more rare sight.

My impression is that there are more of them than at this time last year, but that could just be because I'm around the town more during the day.

I always give the Roma folks a cheery smile (along with a shaking head and "noooo") ... some of them have even got to remembering me!

Gardi seem to come out in bunches: a couple of weeks ago, they were all over the streets for a week, but now they've disappeared again.

cornbb

I've always wondered why Gardaí seem to be deployed in groups of 3 or 4. Surely they could work more efficiently if there were 2 gardai on the beat or in the squad car? Would probably be less craic that way though

KevR

kayos wrote: »

Loud Exhausts i.e. Well above acceptable levels when driven at normal speed they are still 10 a penny. There is some car around my area (black Honda civic in case you could not guess) and I swear some day I’ll catch him and stick his down pipe of and exhaust up his out pipe!

I think the problem the Gardai have with this is that there's nothing in the law which specifically states what is an acceptable level and what isn't. I heard of some cases which were thrown out by the judge because the law doesn't define it properly. To be fair, it's pretty much a no win situation for the Gardai in this case.

The government should just set a maximum acceptable noise level for car exhausts and make it illegal for car shops to sell exhausts which are louder than the maximum set level.

As it stands now it's not fair to allow people to go into a shop and legally buy an exhaust only to be pulled over and brought to court after installing it on their car. And it's a waste of Garda resources and a waste of the court's time as it stands.

ethernet

KevR wrote: »

... The government should just set a maximum acceptable noise level for car exhausts and make it illegal for car shops to sell exhausts which are louder than the maximum set level. ...

What happened with the EU legislation trying to ourlaw the noisy exhausts? IIRC, it was meant to come into force during the summer of last year but haven''t heard much about it since. Perfect time to go enforcing it coming up to the rally

Wompa1

I have been in Galway for every race week in the last 15 years or so and its gotten a bit better in the last couple of years with the barricades but with teh amount of drunk drivers during that week it would seem theres a blind eye..3 years ago there was f'k all Garda intervention during Race Week. When that Spar opened up near cross street people were buying crates of beer and drinking them on the street with the Garda Barracks right down the road. Didn't do much harm apart from the broken glass but still any other time of the year and they'd have you for doing that.