Lugs Brannigan/The Guard v's 'RoboGarda'

Capri

In light of many recent events covered in the media, has Irish policing gone from 'the quiet word'/local friends and intellegence/doing 'favours'.... to a political spin machine that demands 'photo ops' of armed checkpoints (that clogged up traffic so much that no criminal would consider trying to drive around - just hop on his bicycle and sail around the checkpoint ), revenue gathering from motorists, and yellow pack operatives that act like loose cannons .....:mad:

My cousin in the US is a cab driver, he says cops there 'overlook' minor transgressions because cab drivers are often see what's going on on the streets and give that info to the cops, here seems to be the opposite where Gardai target the motorist /taxi drivers as 'easy collars/revenue' when these are the very people who are then asked for help when a serious crime has occurred , same with a story I saw where some inner city lads reckoned that if you wore a hoodie then you were going to be randomly stopped by the 'young guns in a uniform' even if there was nothing happening in the area - just like the blacks in the US.

Talking to a retired senior officer he said the job has 'gone to hell' with the emphases on 'figures' rather than good old fashioned police work - even listening to other retirees on the radio give that same impression.

Would it be better to stand down 'RoboGarda' and focus on getting to know the community instead :rolleyes:

Valetta

Capri wrote: »

In light of many recent events covered in the media, has Irish policing gone from 'the quiet word'/local friends and intellegence/doing 'favours'.... to a political spin machine that demands 'photo ops' of armed checkpoints (that clogged up traffic so much that no criminal would consider trying to drive around - just hop on his bicycle and sail around the checkpoint ), revenue gathering from motorists, and yellow pack operatives that act like loose cannons .....:mad:

My cousin in the US is a cab driver, he says cops there 'overlook' minor transgressions because cab drivers are often see what's going on on the streets and give that info to the cops, here seems to be the opposite where Gardai target the motorist /taxi drivers as 'easy collars/revenue' when these are the very people who are then asked for help when a serious crime has occurred , same with a story I saw where some inner city lads reckoned that if you wore a hoodie then you were going to be randomly stopped by the 'young guns in a uniform' even if there was nothing happening in the area - just like the blacks in the US.

Talking to a retired senior officer he said the job has 'gone to hell' with the emphases on 'figures' rather than good old fashioned police work - even listening to other retirees on the radio give that same impression.

Would it be better to stand down 'RoboGarda' and focus on getting to know the community instead :rolleyes:

The Traffic Corps targeting motoring offences? Whatever next?

c_meth

Capri wrote: »

Talking to a retired senior officer he said the job has 'gone to hell' with the emphases on 'figures' rather than good old fashioned police work - even listening to other retirees on the radio give that same impression.

Would it be better to stand down 'RoboGarda' and focus on getting to know the community instead :rolleyes:

These retired guards are idiots. They are retired and now they have all the answers. The reason it is called old fashioned policing is that it is from a time past.

Figures are loathed by the guards because it shows exactly how they are performing. Old fashioned methods lead to guards doing what they want when they want. It has no place in a modern, multi cultural democracy.

sgthighway

Valetta beat me to it.
Around here Taxi Drivers were a good source of information but it turned out there were a lot of problems within the Taxi Business themselves. Some did not have proper insurance and were driving without a proper license. This might not be politically correct but a lot of the people who migrated to Ireland were cowboys when they started.
The Gardai have to be tough with these Taxi Drivers to ensure we the customers are not getting ripped off and are properly protected. More recently Taxis with told to stop working until they replaced blown bulbs where they would have no front lights on one side of the car.

Capri

Capri wrote: »

Talking to a retired senior officer he said the job has 'gone to hell' with the emphases on 'figures' rather than good old fashioned police work - even listening to other retirees on the radio give that same impression.

Would it be better to stand down 'RoboGarda' and focus on getting to know the community instead :rolleyes:

Did the retired officer say it was the likes of him who are responsible for figure based policing?

There is a perception that all the Gardaí do is prosecute motorists and a lot of that is down to the fact that the majority of decent people only come across the Gardaí when they are caught doing something wrong in their cars or by encountering checkpoints.

People say that checkpoints are only for revenue gathering which is a load of crap. Just this week a male was stopped at a checkpoint hours after a robbery and cash was recovered.

How many drink drivers are caught by checkpoints? How many lives have been saved by these arrests?

I've been on operations aimed at enforcement of taxi regulations and you know what? The legitimate drivers are delighted to see it being done. They hate the cowboys, unlicensed operators who give them a bad name and take their business. They want enforcement.

The biggest problem this country has is the attitude of blamelessness. If I drive past a red light and get caught it's my fault, not the Garda who stops me. If I'm caught on my mobile it's the same. People need to accept that the responsibility for safe driving lies with them. If every Garda was issued with figures for catching motorists there is an easy way to help them miss their targets, don't break the law.

Finally, the biggest power that every Garda has across the country is the power of discretion. And you will never hear how often this power is exercised every single day.

And I take exception with the term 'yellow pack' referring to Gardaí recruited during the accelerated recruitment campaign. These Gardaí have joined the job at a time where it is under the most scrutiny it has ever seen. These retired members would do well to remember the lax levels of discipline that was around during their time of service.

irishrgr

Have to agree with the above...we all tend to look back at "the way it used to be", especially retired members. That was then, this is now. There probably was a time and place for having a "quiet word" with a known criminal, maybe in the 60's & 70's, but not now. The modern criminal is probably part of a trans-national crime syndicate leveraging every aspect of modern technology. The "aul guard" on his bike has no relevance in the 21st century.

"Roboguard" is what you need to confront an adversary with an AK47, not a member in a wool overcoat and his wooden baton.

Traffic enforcement, get over it, don't speed, don't talk on your phone. Checkpoints are a nuisance, they are also a source of intelligence, it hampers movements of known crims. Sure, they can simply walk past the checkpoint, but it slows things down. There is an element of the public seeing something being done too. Besides, traffic enforcement catches criminals be they true "bad guys" of just a rogue taxi operation. BTW, those rogue taxis also provide revenue for organized crime...and, like I've said before here, the Oklahoma City bomber was pulled for a traffic violation....you know, one of those pesky "why aren't you after real criminals" traffic enforcement jobs...

Paulzx

foreign wrote: »

These Gardaí have joined the job at a time where it is under the most scrutiny it has ever seen. These retired members would do well to remember the lax levels of discipline that was around during their time of service.

The irony is that it was the actions of some of those retired members that has led to the huge levels of scrutiny on Gardai trying to do decent job in the present day.

The Gardai are now nearly more "policed" than the rest of our society.

Little CuChulainn

If Gardaí really did target professional drivers it wouldn't be long til there were none left. The standard of driving, and parking, among "professionals" in Ireland is disgraceful.