Garda Reserve Experiences

mcguiver

As an ex-army reservist, I've always had an open mind about reserves.
Like any group of people, I've met good, bad and indifferent ones.

There are times going on the beat when I feel as though I'm babysitting, but there are some reserves that are as good, if not better than having a full timer with you. Some are bringing great life skills and contacts onboard.

I'm not sure if there is a long term plan for the reserves. I havent heard of any attending court to give evidence yet, or having to use their baton.
I have been in the company of some who have been excellent when the pressure was on.

Still undecided!!

Murphy(Cork)

mcguiver wrote: »

As an ex-army reservist

You make it sound so official Free Clothes Association will do

but yeah the Reserves still has a long way to go to prove itself. You just hear the stories of some of the muppets out there that are giving the rest of the reserves a bad name. But you get that everywhere you go i suppose.

Will it last? only time will tell

jake59

are the reserves entitled to join the medical aid and the credit unions?? just wondering..

Balto

Hey ,
Just on the waiting game scenario . Is this a test of patience ? Or just PAS slow ? I got scheduled for oct . Is that not a hell of a long time away ? Heard about background checks so doing background checks in advance by compiling Dates of Birth of aunts and uncles on wifes side and mine and addresses , anything else I should do ?
Congrats to all the lucky ones who are on the way........Heard a whisper that freeze on recruitment won't see the end of the year on very good authority , apparently numbers in the force dwindelling severely. Full time applicants take note.................:D:D:D:D:D

Falony

Balto wrote: »

Hey ,
Just on the waiting game scenario . Is this a test of patience ? Or just PAS slow ? I got scheduled for oct . Is that not a hell of a long time away ? Heard about background checks so doing background checks in advance by compiling Dates of Birth of aunts and uncles on wifes side and mine and addresses , anything else I should do ?
Congrats to all the lucky ones who are on the way........Heard a whisper that freeze on recruitment won't see the end of the year on very good authority , apparently numbers in the force dwindelling severely. Full time applicants take note.................:D:D:D:D

Hi Balto

How good is your very good authority source.......

I'm listening

Most Guards you talk to these days would say something along those lines, that they don't see it lasting as numbers are falling and all will be in the opinion that the freeze won't last long. Unfortunately this doesn't mean it will happen.

Unless you were talking to someone in the know or high up, the whole idea that the freeze won't last long is only the general opinion.

P.s I hope the person you were talking to was someone in the know

dentalnurse

Falony wrote: »

Hi Balto

How good is your very good authority source.......

In the garda review for the month of april they wrote that the ban needs a rethink and it will be reviewed at this years GRA conference. Whenever that is!!! is that good enough authority for ya lol.... yeah every guard i know (and i know quite a few) has said that man power is low and thay will have no choice but to take more on very soon, i heard maybe around early next year

gilly0512

Murphy(Cork) wrote: »

You make it sound so official Free Clothes Association will do

but yeah the Reserves still has a long way to go to prove itself. You just hear the stories of some of the muppets out there that are giving the rest of the reserves a bad name. But you get that everywhere you go i suppose.

Will it last? only time will tell

Its hard to say if the Reserve will last, the Chief and Sergeant who were in charge of the Reserve have since been moved to other posts and have not been replaced, which now leaves one Super in charge of the entire Reserve force as well as his other responsibilities. There has also been no movement whatsoever on proper powers for Reserves who have completed their two year probationary period, so it really is hard to say what the future holds for the Garda Reserve. Anyway its pretty typical of this government, bring in a new idea or concept, and then just forget all about it.

Murphy(Cork)

gilly2308 wrote: »

Its hard to say if the Reserve will last, the Chief and Sergeant who were in charge of the Reserve have since been moved to other posts and have not been replaced, which now leaves one Super in charge of the entire Reserve force as well as his other responsibilities. There has also been no movement whatsoever on proper powers for Reserves who have completed their two year probationary period, so it really is hard to say what the future holds for the Garda Reserve. Anyway its pretty typical of this government, bring in a new idea or concept, and then just forget all about it.

Yeah at the moment it will last as the Gov want to give the public the impression that Garda numbers are strong and increase the Garda Reserve which is basically cost free is a good way of doing that.
In the long run, who knows.

I think that powers that exist at the moment should remain, increasing their policing power could prove messy.

Spartan09

Murphy(Cork) wrote: »

Yeah at the moment it will last as the Gov want to give the public the impression that Garda numbers are strong and increase the Garda Reserve which is basically cost free is a good way of doing that.
In the long run, who knows.

I think that powers that exist at the moment should remain, increasing their policing power could prove messy.

But have even the powers that they envisaged for the reserve in its inception stage been fully implemented yet? From the little I know most other reserve police forces have full police powers but obviously are limited to using them on a part time basis. As I mentioned on a different forum its interesting that the Garda Reserve hasnt been indicated for cuts by An Bord Snip Nua but the Reserve Defence Forces have been recommended to be cut by two thirds....

msg11

As someone that is interested in joining the force, I would not join the reserves. For the reason, that there is such a lack of power I would feel uncomfortable in uniform.

I would love to join with my normal job and have the same powers as my full time colleges.

At the end of the day I am on the beat, with no more powers that the public. And I cant join cause they wont take anybody in...

To be honest I would join the Garda on 9.45 an hour. And thats not a crack at anyone, its just the what I am used to been paid, rather than messing about in Tesco. Packing selves and looking after shoplifters that under law could walk out under there human rights. Again not a stab, at the force who are under enough pressure than too be looking after ticks robbing shopping.

I am a strong believer in you get paid for what you do . As in if your a good enough reserve you'll be asked to join full-time !

Murphy(Cork)

Spartan09 wrote: »

But have even the powers that they envisaged for the reserve in its inception stage been fully implemented yet? From the little I know most other reserve police forces have full police powers but obviously are limited to using them on a part time basis. As I mentioned on a different forum its interesting that the Garda Reserve hasnt been indicated for cuts by An Bord Snip Nua but the Reserve Defence Forces have been recommended to be cut by two thirds....

There has been no cuts mentioned for the Garda Reserve cos it only costs €1 million to run. Which is nothing cos the money they save on overtime by having more Reserves is huge.

Murphy(Cork)

msg11 wrote: »

As someone that is interested in joining the force, I would not join the reserves. For the reason, that there is such a lack of power I would feel uncomfortable in uniform.

I would love to join with my normal job and have the same powers as my full time colleges.

At the end of the day I am on the beat, with no more powers that the public. And I cant join cause they wont take anybody in...

To be honest I would join the Garda on 9.45 an hour. And thats not a crack at anyone, its just the what I am used to been paid, rather than messing about in Tesco. Packing selves and looking after shoplifters that under law could walk out under there human rights. Again not a stab, at the force who are under enough pressure than too be looking after ticks robbing shopping.

I am a strong believer in you get paid for what you do . As in if your a good enough reserve you'll be asked to join full-time !

It's not all about having power!

No one is asking you to go out and shout orders and arrest people.

This is what i'm afraid what will happen to the Reserves over time. People will just join for the power trip

TheNog

First off Im going to ask you not to take offence to my post because Im not attacking you in anyway. You are entitled to your opinon and I respect that but I have to reply to this post.

msg11 wrote: »

As someone that is interested in joining the force, I would not join the reserves. For the reason, that there is such a lack of power I would feel uncomfortable in uniform.

If you are interested in joining the fulltime job whenever it comes up again you have to look at the bigger picture. When I applied 4 years ago there was 10,000 applicants which is considered pretty low. We are in a major recession with massive unemployment which is only going to worsen so realistically if recruitment started again in 2 years time you could be contesting with 20,000+ people for just a couple of hundred jobs, so my question to you is

"What makes you stand out among 20,000 other applicants?"

You couldnt go into an interview and say:

"I know this and that about the job",
"I love to join",
"its been my lifelong dream",
"I have good skills at this and that",
"I do this and that in my job"

The reason you cant have the above as the backbone in an interview is purely because 20,000+ people will be saying the exact same thing so it does not make you stand out of the crowd by any means.

However the 1000 or so Reserevs out there can go into an interview and say

"I know exactly what the job is about"
"I know how the job is done"
"I know the constraints of the law"
"I know certain aspects of the law"
"I have a proven track record working within the Reserves and I see you have it written down in front of you"

I would love to join with my normal job and have the same powers as my full time colleges.

For a full year in training for fulltime you would be wearing the uniform without any powers whatsoever.

At the end of the day I am on the beat, with no more powers that the public.

That is a terrible negative attitude to have. You dont need powers to become a good officer of the peace.

I am a Community Liason Officer for a housing estate that is suffering some terrible problems. For the past year I could count how many times I have used my legal authority on some of the residents.

I am a strong believer in you get paid for what you do . As in if your a good enough reserve you'll be asked to join full-time !

If you believe this, you are deluding yourself.

It appears to me that you suffer from the same thing that many have failed the selection process for - over confidence. It doesnt matter what legal powers you have or dont have because this job involves 5% legal powers and 95% common sense.

So I suggest that you have a major rethink of your reasons to join and how you are going to join the full time job because honestly you dont stand a chance.

TheNog

Murphy(Cork) wrote: »

It's not all about having power!

No one is asking you to go out and shout orders and arrest people.

This is what i'm afraid what will happen to the Reserves over time. People will just join for the power trip

Tbh this fear was expressed by fulltime members too before the Reserves came into being and so far from my own experience it hasnt happened yet.

When you were being trained were ye informed of any disciplinary procedure to deal with rogue Reserves? Is there a procedure for getting rid of a Reserve member?

Shield

It's rare that I echo someone, or do a "What he said" post, but this post contains excellent advice from a serving member.

Listen to him.

TheNog wrote: »

First off Im going to ask you not to take offence to my post because Im not attacking you in anyway. You are entitled to your opinon and I respect that but I have to reply to this post.

If you are interested in joining the fulltime job whenever it comes up again you have to look at the bigger picture. When I applied 4 years ago there was 10,000 applicants which is considered pretty low. We are in a major recession with massive unemployment which is only going to worsen so realistically if recruitment started again in 2 years time you could be contesting with 20,000+ people for just a couple of hundred jobs, so my question to you is

"What makes you stand out among 20,000 other applicants?"

You couldnt go into an interview and say:

"I know this and that about the job",
"I love to join",
"its been my lifelong dream",
"I have good skills at this and that",
"I do this and that in my job"

The reason you cant have the above as the backbone in an interview is purely because 20,000+ people will be saying the exact same thing so it does not make you stand out of the crowd by any means.

However the 1000 or so Reserevs out there can go into an interview and say

"I know exactly what the job is about"
"I know how the job is done"
"I know the constraints of the law"
"I know certain aspects of the law"
"I have a proven track record working within the Reserves and I see you have it written down in front of you"

For a full year in training for fulltime you would be wearing the uniform without any powers whatsoever.

That is a terrible negative attitude to have. You dont need powers to become a good officer of the peace.

I am a Community Liason Officer for a housing estate that is suffering some terrible problems. For the past year I could count how many times I have used my legal authority on some of the residents.

If you believe this, you are deluding yourself.

It appears to me that you suffer from the same thing that many have failed the selection process for - over confidence. It doesnt matter what legal powers you have or dont have because this job involves 5% legal powers and 95% common sense.

So I suggest that you have a major rethink of your reasons to join and how you are going to join the full time job because honestly you dont stand a chance.

Murphy(Cork)

TheNog wrote: »

Tbh this fear was expressed by fulltime members too before the Reserves came into being and so far from my own experience it hasnt happened yet.

When you were being trained were ye informed of any disciplinary procedure to deal with rogue Reserves? Is there a procedure for getting rid of a Reserve member?

Haven't heard of one but I personally know some in it for the wrong reasons and it boils my blood because they give us all a bad name.
But tbh I suppose you get those in the full time too.

What worries me, is with this whole recruitment freeze, it seems the flood gates have open for people to join the Reserve as it's a good way to give the impression that garda numbers are still as high as previous years with little expenditure.
Some cases I heard of people who have failed numerous times to get into the full time and get the Reserves first time. I know both aren't the same but......

Just hope the criteria for the Reserves doesn't fall to get the numbers in

msg11

Cheers for the replys to my post, the Nog, good advise in your post. I was terrible short in my post about the reserves, with fly off the wall remarks, forgive me.

And to be honest with myself, I will have to rethink my reasons for joining & what I would like to see myself doing in the job five years down the line.

I may look into joining the reserves after I think of my reasons for joining.

innercitydub1

Hey just thought i would do up a thread as seems to be pretty dead in here lately.

Well just wondering to all the reserves out there at the moment, what shifts and days you do your 8 hours duty on????

Just wondering as to what your station is like regarding your flexbility and hours you have made yourself availble for.

Ive to go into my district officer in a few days and i persume we will be working out what days i shall be availble.
With regards to this just wondering what hours have past and present reserves done during there weekly duty??.

Id like to no as i am quite busy at the moment and with college coming back up in september, im afriad the district officer might think the hours im availble for will be quite inconvinint to his stations needs and requirments for certain days.

Before college my hours will be

monday
6am to 2pm or 10pm to 6am

Thursday
6am to 2pm

Friday 6am to 2pm

I do alot of voulunterr and sports so hours at the moment are kinda tied up.

When college begins i will be availble

Fridays for the 6am to 2pm, 2pm 10pm or 10pm to 6am

Well would like some feed back on how stations take to working mornings and also share with us how everyone finds there hours.

No itty gritty details of what happens on duty for obvious reasons please.
Just a bit about how you find it personly

Thanks

I'm listening

innercitydub1 wrote: »

Hey just thought i would do up a thread as seems to be pretty dead in here lately.

Well just wondering to all the reserves out there at the moment, what shifts and days you do your 8 hours duty on????

Just wondering as to what your station is like regarding your flexbility and hours you have made yourself availble for.

Ive to go into my district officer in a few days and i persume we will be working out what days i shall be availble.
With regards to this just wondering what hours have past and present reserves done during there weekly duty??.

Id like to no as i am quite busy at the moment and with college coming back up in september, im afriad the district officer might think the hours im availble for will be quite inconvinint to his stations needs and requirments for certain days.

Before college my hours will be

monday
6am to 2pm or 10pm to 6am

Thursday
6am to 2pm

Friday 6am to 2pm

I do alot of voulunterr and sports so hours at the moment are kinda tied up.

When college begins i will be availble

Fridays for the 6am to 2pm, 2pm 10pm or 10pm to 6am

Well would like some feed back on how stations take to working mornings and also share with us how everyone finds there hours.

No itty gritty details of what happens on duty for obvious reasons please.
Just a bit about how you find it personly

Thanks

Never found the Reserves to interfere with my college life. Don't worry they won't force you to work hours you can't do. Basically reserves are only needed on weekends or if there are events on and thats not every weekend. So it's easily manageable with college.

innercitydub1

yeah but thats the thing im not free weekends.

Do you no any reserves that that do weekdays???
Will your sergent still try to accomdate you for weekdays or do you have todo weekends??

I'm listening

innercitydub1 wrote: »

yeah but thats the thing im not free weekends.

Do you no any reserves that that do weekdays???
Will your sergent still try to accomdate you for weekdays or do you have todo weekends??

Like there is no need for Reserves during the week, well from my experience where I am anyway.
Like if thats all you can do, I'm sure they will accommodate you somehow.

innercitydub1

yeah i suppose but my station is pretty central in dublin so i say they will be busy most days.

i think my most convinint hours to the garda will be 2 to 10 thursday.

How do you find it yourself im listening??

Do you no any reserves that do weekdays?????????

I'm listening

innercitydub1 wrote: »

yeah i suppose but my station is pretty central in dublin so i say they will be busy most days.

i think my most convinint hours to the garda will be 2 to 10 thursday.

How do you find it yourself im listening??

Do you no any reserves that do weekdays?????????

Yeah it's grand, been doing it for two years now. It's good if you intend to join the full time at some stage with the experience and stuff.

To be honest, know a few Reserves and don't know any who just do weekdays but as you said being in Dublin may be different. Should be busier.

innercitydub1

Yeah i hope that is the case. cause im realy tied up at weekends at the moment.

Eh yeah im doing it to getinto the full time. I also think its a great way to see if it is a job for you.

As i no a few people who done all the full time training went out on the beat and realised this job is not for me.

At the moment im doing stuff thats quite relevent to Gardai work. Voulunteer with inner city partnership, doing social policys degree in college and the reserves. So hoipefuly this will all stand for me if i can get by the bleeding alptitude tests

I'm listening

innercitydub1 wrote: »

Yeah i hope that is the case. cause im realy tied up at weekends at the moment.

Eh yeah im doing it to getinto the full time. I also think its a great way to see if it is a job for you.

As i no a few people who done all the full time training went out on the beat and realised this job is not for me.

At the moment im doing stuff thats quite relevent to Gardai work. Voulunteer with inner city partnership, doing social policys degree in college and the reserves. So hoipefuly this will all stand for me if i can get by the bleeding alptitude tests

Ah you'll fly through the tests, that is whenever they start up again.

But yeah you'll be properly prepared when you do go for the full time with the Reserves behind you. Found it great for the interview alright.

gilly0512

TheNog wrote: »

Tbh this fear was expressed by fulltime members too before the Reserves came into being and so far from my own experience it hasnt happened yet.

When you were being trained were ye informed of any disciplinary procedure to deal with rogue Reserves? Is there a procedure for getting rid of a Reserve member?

As far as I know the procedure for getting rid of a Reserve member is the same as that for getting rid of a full time member below the rank of Superintendent, that is only the Commissioner could sanction the dismissal of a Reserve member. In saying that we would probably not have the same rights of appeal etc that a full time member would have, or any kind of union representation, so I think it would be pretty much curtains for any Reserve member once it goes as far as the Commissioner. By the way in relation to powers, I would say that 99.9% of Reserves have no interest in arresting people, but I still think that Reserves who have completed their two year probationary period, and subject to training should at the very least get Public Order powers.

Dubbhoy

Hey Lads

Just wondering if GR are able to get involved in Social Clubs E.G Swimming club ?

am!e

Just wondering because i can't find any info.. is it possible to fail any of the training stages?? Starting on the 25th - so nervous now

lehanemore

am!e wrote: »

Just wondering because i can't find any info.. is it possible to fail any of the training stages?? Starting on the 25th - so nervous now

Yes, there were people failed Police Self Defence and Hand-cuff/Baton techniques in a group prior to ours, they got a second chance at it with our draft when we were in templemore for phase 3 , don't know if you'd get a 3rd go though..