Gardai Response Times?

Nijmegen

We have 1 Garda for every 307.5 people.

The Met police in London has 1 for every 134.5 people - though one cannot compare like for like as they may run their administration differently, it certainly is a significant difference.

Does anyone know - I've looked but cannot find - if there are published figures on Gardai response times to emergency calls? (The met, like many other police forces, does log this in their computer systems. This is an interesting look at it. Interestingly, the computer system is not a new piece of tech. It's likely older than many new Gardai...)

I know of an incident during the first Sunday in April, where the Gardai took over an hour and a half to respond to a call in Blanchardstown, where it transpired that they were having a busy day (it was the first sunny Sunday in the year, I recall?) and had only two patrol cars out in Blanch - the capitals largest suburb, with a population of 110,000 I believe.

Several years ago I recall a friend being mugged on his way home, calling the Gardai (the people who had mugged him lingering to catch their next victim in a public park) at 3pm and getting them at his door at 10pm, the first the Gardai on the patrol had heard of it.

One tends to hear a lot of hearsay (rather, it's called hearsay and, of course, is not statistically verifiable; a trend we have in Ireland where all we seem to have in public sector shortcomings, according to our politicians, is 'isolated incidents' of this and that with no statistics to back anyone up), but are there any facts and figures, and if so, why not?

I tend to be of the belief that we do not have a sufficient police force to cover the duties they have, most notably seen in their response times to emergency calls.

I am also a little bit flabbergasted that when one does call for emergency services, they tend to put you through to the local Gardai station, and the phone can ring off on many occasions, or you can be left hanging whilst waiting for what is essentially their customer facing desk to answer.

It all seems rather hodge podge.

What experiences have you had in this regard, and do you think our 14,500 Gardai are sufficient for the ground they have to cover? Should we provision more for this in our budgets?

ardmacha

I tend to be of the belief that we do not have a sufficient police force to cover the duties they have, most notably seen in their response times to emergency calls.

The way forward for the PS is for such things to be measured, but this also requires a willingness by government to invest to meet these targets, rather than just using them for talk purposes.

hiorta

""We have 1 Garda for every 307.5 people. ""
Is that 3 officers for 307.5 people with two being off duty at any given time?

Nijmegen

hiorta wrote: »

""We have 1 Garda for every 307.5 people. ""
Is that 3 officers for 307.5 people with two being off duty at any given time?

No, that's the figure of population divided by number of Gardai. Same calculation as for the Met.

It seems we don't do metrics very well, for all our state bodies for everything.

Overheal

Its not necessarily the best indicator of success. what about crime rate? What about equipment and training?

"2 cops on every corner" sounds nice, but its also not necessarily necessary.

kraggy

Is Tallaght not the largest suburb?

Zambia

Nijmegen wrote: »

We have 1 Garda for every 307.5 people.
I know of an incident during the first Sunday in April, where the Gardai took over an hour and a half to respond to a call in Blanchardstown, where it transpired that they were having a busy day (it was the first sunny Sunday in the year, I recall?) and had only two patrol cars out in Blanch - the capitals largest suburb, with a population of 110,000 I believe.

What was the nature of the call out? As the nature of the incident has everything to do with the response I would expect.

Nijmegen wrote: »

Several years ago I recall a friend being mugged on his way home, calling the Gardai (the people who had mugged him lingering to catch their next victim in a public park) at 3pm and getting them at his door at 10pm, the first the Gardai on the patrol had heard of it.

Ok well once again you have no way of knowing what was transpiring in the same area at that time. As heinous as a mugging is sometimes something else may have a/the gardai car tied up. Chances are if the call goes over a good few minutes a decision would be made that the offenders had gone and something more pressing at that time would be given priorty. The mugging would then just need to be followed up later. So at that stage it makes scant difference between a 2 hour response and a 7 hour response.

You can see the difference in a call of "i have been mugged" as opposed to "I am being chased" the latter is obivuosly the more urgent a call.

Not being a member of AGS I cant say how they class there calls so I am open to correction. We would class ours on the nature of the call we get. We are a paid response service so every call we get we time and are held to account. However sometimes we just cant respond as all our units are tied up or to far away.

Nijmegen wrote: »

One tends to hear a lot of hearsay (rather, it's called hearsay and, of course, is not statistically verifiable; a trend we have in Ireland where all we seem to have in public sector shortcomings, according to our politicians, is 'isolated incidents' of this and that with no statistics to back anyone up), but are there any facts and figures, and if so, why not?

I tend to be of the belief that we do not have a sufficient police force to cover the duties they have, most notably seen in their response times to emergency calls.

Ireland is the home of Hearsay...and quite possibly you are right we need more police. But how many would be enough?

Nijmegen wrote: »

I am also a little bit flabbergasted that when one does call for emergency services, they tend to put you through to the local Gardai station, and the phone can ring off on many occasions, or you can be left hanging whilst waiting for what is essentially their customer facing desk to answer.

I never got this.

Nijmegen wrote: »

What experiences have you had in this regard, and do you think our 14,500 Gardai are sufficient for the ground they have to cover? Should we provision more for this in our budgets?

In Ireland I called the police at times daily in some cases response was good in others bad, however I knew the Gardai that responded and they never did not respond quickly for lack of trying. In Oz the cops don't attend some crimes at all due to other crimes being in progress.they have smaller patrol zones in comparisson to AGS zones. In fact my last three calls to police have resulted in non or very late attendance. But the important thing I know is that if the situation warranted it they would be quick enough.

MagicSean

Nijmegen wrote: »

I am also a little bit flabbergasted that when one does call for emergency services, they tend to put you through to the local Gardai station, and the phone can ring off on many occasions, or you can be left hanging whilst waiting for what is essentially their customer facing desk to answer.

In Dublin if you ring 999 you get throught to the garda control center. In the country you get through to the divisional station for your area. I've never known a 999 call to ring out. Most divisional stations also have a dedicated control room now too.