How long does it take for a Garda to come to the front desk in Store St?

Sundew

I was heading to Bus Aras for an architectural tour via Talbot St this afternoon (2pm) when my OH and I came across a fight between 2 drunken men outside a shop.
It started to get pretty heavy but what alarmed us was a little boy of about 7 was crying and trying to get the men to stop fighting, meanwhile the rest of the local lowlifes were egging them on.
As we were right beside store St I popped into the station, rang the bell twice and waited. A young east european girl was also waiting and told me she had been waiting for 10 minutes with no garda attending to the desk! I ended up walking out of the station without seeing a garda.

My questions are: Is this normal in a busy city centre station or is this a result of cutbacks?
I'm pretty sure the incident could be seen on CCTV in there anyway, but surely members of the public should not be discouraged from reporting incidents to the station!

Mister Jingles

This comes as no surprise to be honest. Two weeks ago I was left waiting at the front desk in Finglas for 15 minutes before leaving.

Captain Chaos

I was in there about 6 years ago when my friend got dipped in a near by hotel during the afternoon, wallet and money all gone. Went to report it and ended up waiting for 30mins with no sign of any staff so we just left. Crazy setup in the middle of the city.

Cavehill Red

I've found some stations to be really bad at this and others grand. The Bridewell sticks out as one where they'll come to the desk fairly lively. Might be something to do with proximity to the courts, I dunno. They're quick enough at Pearse Street too, a little tardy at Mountjoy and downright donut-eating at Fitzgibbon.
This is just my personal experience, though, due to a combination of a particular job I once did and being the victim of a series of crimes at one point I was in and out of quite a few stations in a short period of time.

Sundew

Thankfully I have had very few reasons to visit stations in the past but I was just gobsmacked that nobody was attending, in what is a busy city centre station.

amdublin

Standard operating proceedure as far as I'm concerned for all stations, not just store street.

I waited five mins at my local and I kid you not your man came out wiping sugar off his cheek.

Typical civil servant behaviour imo.

Diddler1977

I heard of someone standing waiting in a station.

When no guard appeared after 15 mins they rang the station on their mobile. When a guard answered they asked would they come out to the public counter to assist everyone who was waiting!

Sundew

amdublin wrote: »

Standard operating proceedure as far as I'm concerned for all stations, not just store street.

I waited five mins at my local and I kid you not your man came out wiping sugar off his cheek.

Typical civil servant behaviour imo.

It did cross my mind it was lunchtime and the kettle might be brewing. bet if I'd jumped up on the counter they would have been out like a shot :rolleyes:

charlemont

That bit about the poor child is disturbing, I wonder what type of future that poor boy will have, Absolutely disgraceful.

robjones1981

I waited for 27 minutes on one occasion at pearse st

Turner

Alot of things take priority in a station and if there is only one or two Gardai on duty the hatch/front desk sometimes comes last.

Prisoners are the main priority, if 4 or 5 prisoners are detained this will take up a lot of time.

With most prisoners being drunk they have to be checked and roused every 15 mins.

Other prisoners require consultations with solicitors or doctors or require ambulances. Gardai have to be present and supervise all these visits.

Then the phones have to be answered, cctv operated, radios operated and assiatance given to car crews.

Unfortunately signing papers and passports at the front desk takes a low priority.

If you require the Gardai urgently dial 999, these operators have no other jobs to do apart from answer your call. And are in direct contact with car crews.

OP if you had made enough noise or shouted for assistance in the public office somebody would have come out, but then again the Gardai in the staiton looking after prisoners would not have been able to leave the station, or would have been equipped to deal with a fight.

It would have been diverted to the car crew.

Hope this explains what goes on in a Garda Station. And Sundays are a very busy day.


edit.

Oh and being store street i presume they would have 10+ cells maybe even 20 I dont know.

Witcher

Part and parcel of going to any station really, similar situation myself a few weeks ago, waiting 15 mins after ringing the bell listening to em chatting in the back before another guy comes in rings bell, waits 5 mins, asks me how long I waited and says 'fcuk that' and proceeds to hold down the bell till they decided to actually attend the front desk, your man gave the guard some earful about it too:p

miketv

Pearse street can be hit and miss but mostly positive in my opinion.
I've had fantastic experiences and one particularly awful experience, Unfortunately the bad experiences sticks with you longer.

Diddler1977

It's a bit maddening (and very unreasonable imo) to have to wait 15/20 mins to get something signed that only take 2 mins or less to do. You'd think they would have a clerical officer or something doing this type of work anyway.

Sundew

charlemont wrote: »

That bit about the poor child is disturbing, I wonder what type of future that poor boy will have, Absolutely disgraceful.

Charlemont :This was my sole reason for heading into the station to try and report the incident. My husband who is well used to what goes on in Dublin was sickened when he saw the small boy crying and trying to break it up

@Chief: well I guess I could have rung 999 but surely this would have been a bit drastic when it was happening right behind the station!!! Will do this next time :-)

CharlieCroker

I find it amazing that some people find calling 999 so difficult. It's there for a reason, and this was a perfect example of when it should be used. As Chief mentioned already, the 999 dispatcher has direct contact with any units.

amdublin

Diddler1977 wrote: »

I heard of someone standing waiting in a station.

When no guard appeared after 15 mins they rang the station on their mobile. When a guard answered they asked would they come out to the public counter to assist everyone who was waiting!

That's ridiculous that someone had to do that.

Blay

Blay wrote: »

Part and parcel of going to any station really, similar situation myself a few weeks ago, waiting 15 mins after ringing the bell listening to em chatting in the back before another guy comes in rings bell, waits 5 mins, asks me how long I waited and says 'fcuk that' and proceeds to hold down the bell till they decided to actually attend the front desk, your man gave the guard some earful about it too:p

If anybody tried that in my station they'd be shown the door fairly quickly. As chief said, the front counter is the least important duty of Gardaí on station duty.

Sundew wrote: »

Charlemont :This was my sole reason for heading into the station to try and report the incident. My husband who is well used to what goes on in Dublin was sickened when he saw the small boy crying and trying to break it up

@Chief: well I guess I could have rung 999 but surely this would have been a bit drastic when it was happening right behind the station!!! Will do this next time :-)

Would your husband not have tried to intervene?

amdublin

foreign wrote: »

If anybody tried that in my station they'd be shown the door fairly quickly. As chief said, the front counter is the least important duty of Gardaí on station duty.

Yes. Patently obvious.

As a service is this acceptable?

Sundew

foreign wrote: »

Would your husband not have tried to intervene?

I take it you are kidding
My husband has lived long enough in Dublin to know NOT to get involved in such matters...........I thought thats what the law was for

In retrospect I should have rang 999 as I have not been able to get the little boy out of my head since today.

cocoshovel

The few times Ive been to my local station for things like forums, passports, age card, vetting etc there has always been someone on the desk. I never have to wait long, only if the garda is on the phone. Usually have a nice chat with her too, it seems to be the same girl every time.

However, the station is 10km away, and as Im sure you have heard, their traffic unit has no car :pac:

The one in my village is never manned anymore. Only occasionally I see a little red nissan micra parked outside it.

Witcher

foreign wrote: »

If anybody tried that in my station they'd be shown the door fairly quickly. As chief said, the front counter is the least important duty of Gardaí on station duty.

Yeah you're probably right, having a good chat is more important in the grand scheme of things.

Delancey

The only time I was at the counter in Store Street I gave up waiting.

As Chief--- has pointed out Store Street would be a very busy station in terms of prisoner numbers.
If a Guard left to deal with someone at the counter and a prisoner self-harmed in his/her absence guess who would be in a world of sh1t ?

eroo

People need to understand there is usually 1 Garda detailed for the public office depending on the station. The public office is his/her sole responsibility. Every Garda in the station is detailed to do something. You may see Gardai walking around but they could be after coming out of an interview room for a cup of tea and a break, they don't need to be dealing with passport forms. Likewise they may be assigned to patrol duties so can't get stuck doing enquiries at the front desk.

You may wait in line for 30 minutes at the post office. Do you complain about that? Or do you just accept that the reality is the post office is very busy and there are only so many staff?

The Gardai are no different; understaffed, under resourced and an increase in workload. Remember this the next time you complain about how your taxes pay their wages etc etc

OP, Store Street is considered the busiest station in the country. If you see an incident like that ring 999 or 112 and ask for the Gardai. By leaving the scene the two males fighting may have left the area by the time Gardai arrive, whereas you staying there you can notify Gardai which direction they went, seperate or together etc.

amdublin

eroo wrote: »

You may wait in line for 30 minutes at the post office. Do you complain about that? Or do you just accept that the reality is the post office is very busy and there are only so many staff?
.

I certainly do not accept this either.

Lookit. We all have jobs to do. I have other priorities too. But I'd never ever leave someone waiting that amount of time with no indication of how long they could be waiting.

It's about setting expectations.
For example if Store st is that busy with all other stuff wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of sign at reception indicating the potential wait time and the reason why. Also indicating to call 999 if it is any kind of emergency, even of a reasonable small nature.

Finally when i eventually did come out to the customer at the desk I'd have the decency to:
- apologise for them having to wait
- explain to them why they had to wait
- and most importantly look like the above was true ie. Not be wiping off sugar off my cheek or chatting to a colleage as i came out. Both which i have had experience of.

Edit. Oh and also I'd be fully prepared to assist the member of the public.
In the sugar incident the gard who came out to me had no notebook or computer and proceeded to write down my issue/details on a loose A4 piece of paper. I often wonder what happened to that piece of paper when I walked out of the station....

Unique User Name

I don't think calling 999 will necessarily help either. I had an attempted house break in a few months ago and called 999. They told me a car was on the way but it never came. Yes I could have called back but after I realised they weren't going to show up enough time had passed that it would have been pointless. From what I hear this would not be an isolated incident either. I don't blame the Gardai, I think they are seriously under resourced and I think things will only get worse.

daenerysstormborn3

I was under the impression that intervening in a fight is something you would not be advised to do by any member of law enforcement. If I was to intervene in a fight and god forbid I did some serious damage to one of the people involved in the fight by accident, lets say I grabbed one of them and they fell and whacked their head (which could so easily happen if the person is drunk) then that's me done for assault.

Also, a lot of the people are commenting on the fact that they can hear gardai chatting in a back room - there's a difference between that and there only being one garda on duty.

Generally if you are waiting in a queue in any other establishment, you can see other people being dealt with, you have some vague of idea of when you might reach the top of the queue and you know that you are waiting because the people behind the counter are busy. Most people don't see any of this in a garda station and I'm sure complaining about it would really make a bit of difference.

spurious

Surely handing out passport forms, signing photos, stamping forms etc. does not require Garda training to perform?

Why not free up personnel for 'proper' Garda work and employ non-Garda office staff to staff the front desks?

amdublin

spurious wrote: »

Surely handing out passport forms, signing photos, stamping forms etc. does not require Garda training to perform?

Why not free up personnel for 'proper' Garda work and employ non-Garda office staff to staff the front desks?

Or why not improve other processes and be more efficient at other processes which would then provide capacity/time to man the front office?

jill_valentine

foreign wrote: »

If anybody tried that in my station they'd be shown the door fairly quickly. As chief said, the front counter is the least important duty of Gardaí on station duty.



Would your husband not have tried to intervene?

Am absolutely amazed to see this response committed to text by a serving member.

Chief Wiggum once said something not unlike it to raise a laugh.

eroo

amdublin wrote: »

I certainly do not accept this either.

Lookit. We all have jobs to do. I have other priorities too. But I'd never ever leave someone waiting that amount of time with no indication of how long they could be waiting.

It's about setting expectations.
For example if Store st is that busy with all other stuff wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of sign at reception indicating the potential wait time and the reason why. Also indicating to call 999 if it is any kind of emergency, even of a reasonable small nature.

Finally when i eventually did come out to the customer at the desk I'd have the decency to:
- apologise for them having to wait
- explain to them why they had to wait
- and most importantly look like the above was true ie. Not be wiping off sugar off my cheek or chatting to a colleage as i came out. Both which i have had experience of.

Edit. Oh and also I'd be fully prepared to assist the member of the public.
In the sugar incident the gard who came out to me had no notebook or computer and proceeded to write down my issue/details on a loose A4 piece of paper. I often wonder what happened to that piece of paper when I walked out of the station....

I don't mean to be smart but a Garda Station is not a customer service centre. Gardai shouldn't have to apologise for being busy. It's a police station which can be dealing with a variety of different prisoners for a variety of different crimes. Gardai can't just let a prisoner sit in a cell for an hour without being checked because a person needs to get a form stamped.

Also, Gardai need to get a break too. That Garda might have been trying to get a quick bite to eat, as a shift can be so busy they might not get a chance. I'm sure you are entitled to and actually get a break in your workplace. That is not always the case for Gardai.

Finally, writing details down on a loose A4 piece of paper is perfectly acceptable. A Garda's notebook can be used as evidence in court so it shouldn't have jottings or short hand notes. So for example, if you produce your insurance certificate at a station the Garda may require some very basic details so as to put the insurance cert details on the system. Writing these in an Official notebook is unnecessary.

Unfortunately, as always, most people assume the worst of Gardai. Bottom line: They are understaffed, under resourced and overworked.. but they will still be the first to come to your aid in an emergency.