News : Off-duty garda holds armed robber in Dublin shop

TallGlass

An off-duty garda apprehended an armed robber during a raid in a shop in Stoneybatter in Dublin yesterday.

The incident happened at about 1.30pm when the off-duty officer, a recent garda graduate at Templemore, entered the shop as the robbery was in progress.

He identified himself as a member of An Garda Síochána and was threatened at gunpoint by the man.

However, he successfully disarmed the raider and restrained him until local gardaí arrived.

The man was arrested and a firearm and a large kitchen knife were recovered at the scene.http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0126/763025-raid-off-duty-garda/

Thought and options? Good, bad?

I remember some time ago, I was in a much similar situation in my local shop, I decided to just call it in to the local station and get a description of them, direction. In this case seems to be not long out of Templemore and I am not long after failing my stage 2 on report writing and job simulation as a serving Garda Reserve, would this be the difference I can't help ask myself, maybe I am not made out for the role of Garda after all.

In my case they did catch the driver of the car, mind you pulling into his garden of all places.

MondeoMan92

I wouldn't look on what you did as negative by comparison with what the off duty garda did. It was more of the safe option what you did, for example if the off duty garda had of confronted the robber and a member of the public was injured due to his actions then you'd be reading a very different story at the moment. Thankfully this did not happen but at the same time it easily could have. Each situation has to be weighed up and appropriate action taken. As there was only one raider then I would say he made the right call. Without more information about you incident its hard to make a proper judgement, but by the results you got id say it was the right one

Alfasudcrazy

These are the types of situations a Garda dreams of. Its hard to know how you would react but given that you are only a reserve garda I think you did the right thing given your limited powers and not being a member - no pay and no compensation if you were injured either. No I don't think this was the cause of the failure. You need to look more deeply at yourself and your performance. Try and get some advice as to where you may be going wrong etc.

Harry Bosch.

Alfasudcrazy wrote: »

These are the types of situations a Garda dreams of. Its hard to know how you would react but given that you are only a reserve garda I think you did the right thing given your limited powers and not being a member - no pay and no compensation if you were injured either. No I don't think this was the cause of the failure. You need to look more deeply at yourself and your performance. Try and get some advice as to where you may be going wrong etc.

I do not think going up against an armed individual is any members dream, why would it be. it is up there with one of the worst incidents you could possibly deal with on or off duty. One has only to look at members killed in the line of duty whilst dealing with these armed people, did they dream of it. It comes down to the individual member regardless of rank and the type of incident before him/her. These two members both dealt with the threat before them in there own manner and achieved the right result. Reserve Gardai are members of An Garda Siochana and while the powers are limited you subduing and detaining an armed individual would not be an issue, you could by all means make a citizens arrest.

Harry Bosch. wrote: »

I do not think going up against an armed individual is any members dream, why would it be. it is up there with one of the worst incidents you could possibly deal with on or off duty. One has only to look at members killed in the line of duty whilst dealing with these armed people, did they dream of it. It comes down to the individual member regardless of rank and the type of incident before him/her. These two members both dealt with the threat before them in there own manner and achieved the right result. Reserve Gardai are members of An Garda Siochana and while the powers are limited you subduing and detaining an armed individual would not be an issue, you could by all means make a citizens arrest.

'Citizens Arrest' covered by this legislation;
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/act/14/section/4/enacted/en/html

And use of force;
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/act/26/section/18/enacted/en/html

Potential-Monke

A few years ago, maybe i would have done what this lad did. Now? Not a hope. The job has made it blatantly clear i don't matter, so i'm not going to put my life on the line unnecessarily. It's great that this new lad done something good, but the reason he did it is because he is new. A few years service and that'll be gone out of him. Why? Because the job doesn't care about us, it has ruined morale, and there's too many things that could go wrong. The job is literally just that now, a job, nothing more. Maybe it will get back to being a "calling" at some stage, but i won't be holding my breath.

Little CuChulainn

Fair play to the guy for intervening. I like to think I would too but I don't think I'd be flashing the badge first. Hit him from behind without warning maybe.

Pocoyo

Potential-Monke wrote: »

A few years ago, maybe i would have done what this lad did. Now? Not a hope. The job has made it blatantly clear i don't matter, so i'm not going to put my life on the line unnecessarily. It's great that this new lad done something good, but the reason he did it is because he is new. A few years service and that'll be gone out of him. Why? Because the job doesn't care about us, it has ruined morale, and there's too many things that could go wrong. The job is literally just that now, a job, nothing more. Maybe it will get back to being a "calling" at some stage, but i won't be holding my breath.

You could do with standing up to them maybe? you are all too willing to attend protests and act the big men,The whole force has no morals not a single brave soul is willing to stand up for their beliefs in the bunch,You reap what you sow.

Pocoyo

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

Fair play to the guy for intervening. I like to think I would too but I don't think I'd be flashing the badge first. Hit him from behind without warning maybe.

Id imagine you would be the first on the ground screaming and screeching 'help me help me'

Little CuChulainn

Pocoyo wrote: »

Id imagine you would be the first on the ground screaming and screeching 'help me help me'

I was wondering why I had you on the ignore list. Makes sense now.

TallGlass

Pocoyo wrote: »

You could do with standing up to them maybe? you are all too willing to attend protests and act the big men,The whole force has no morals not a single brave soul is willing to stand up for their beliefs in the bunch,You reap what you sow.

No offence to you here but that's all well and good, but when you work in a job and if you don't do as instructed by your superiors you could effiectly end your service/contract.

irishrgr

Fair play to the member in question, that's a plucky move and glad it went well.
We actually had a class on this at CE training two years ago...it was shocking to hear the number of off-duty officers killed either by the perp or other officers.

Our dept's position is they prefer we only get involved if there is a clear danger to life and we can do so safely. The guidance is "be a good witness" i.e. call it in, get a good description, reg plates, follow from a safe distance, etc. The officer giving the class walked in on an armed robbery, drew his weapon & badge, the perp surrendered & laid down....here comes the uniforms, responding to "armed robbery", they see a man with a gun and someone on the ground....he came close to being shot....it was sobering to hear his story. It made me rethink my actions I can tell you...yes I carry a backup gun off duty, but it's purely a weapon of last resort.

Well done him, it's a personal decision and we'll all only know on the day but food for thought to be sure.