Your experiences with the Gards over the years.

JackieBauer

No, I'm not Tony Soprano or Henry Hill. However, this is a mere discussion on our national police force. I know Gards, most people probably do also. What is your general opinion of our police force? There is no reason for this to get out of hand. No libellous or abusive crap etc.

Anyway, I think most of them are very cock sure and ignorant so and so's, and some are nice.

mansize

Gardai? All my dealings with them have been pleasant

Lyaiera

I'm wary of them because they can lock me up.

pappyodaniel

Whilst I wouldn't have a warm relationship with them I do respect the institution. For instance if I get attacked, suffer a burglary or experience an accident they would be my first port of call. My own opinion is the less dealings you have with the Gardai, then your life is going in the right direction.

JackieBauer

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Whilst I wouldn't have a warm relationship with them I do respect the institution. For instance if I get attacked, suffer a burglary or experience an accident they would be my first port of call. My own opinion is the less dealings you have with the Gardai, then your life is going in the right direction.

Absolutley, them and the Social Welfare.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

They're absolute perverts! the ones I knew anyway
In a professional capacity, they've been always nice to me. The only run in I ever had with a rude one was some young one, bit of a chip on her shoulder. Was grand though.

AndyBoBandy

I believe those at the coal face are doing a good job with limited resources. I believe higher up the chain, they probably could be doing better.

If dealing with a Garda (not that I ever do), I would always act cordially and treat them with the respect the badge warrants. After all, If I fear for my or my families safety, they are the ones I would call on and the ones I would expect to protect me.

My first ever 'encounter' with the Garda was being caught writing on the lamp post opposite my house when I was a kid, I wrote that "Eoin has a mallet head" in blue marker, and they wanted to know who Eoin was (Eoin was a kid from a few houses up the road from me), Eoin's father was actually a Garda, and I was shíttíng myself that the Garda questioning me would somehow put 2 & 2 together and lock me up for life!!

Those truly were the days when not a single iota was given.

js35

Never had a problem with the Garda always found them ok to deal with bit them but then again I've never been in trouble with them

AudreyHepburn

I've never had issues with the Gardai, they've always pleasant and professional in my dealings with them.

Treat them with respect, be pleasant and polite and you'll get the same in return. I really don't understand why people struggle so much with this simple concept.

The Gardai have a tough stressful job as it is, they deserve our respect and support.

Diemos

Never been in any kind of trouble with them.
My bike was stolen, I never even bothered reporting it.
They don't want to know or care (learned that lesson after reporting a break in).

It has to be tough for them, understaffed and seeing scum with 20+ convictions just walking free time after time has to hit morale.
But the level of crime with scum rarely caught and the brazenness of these scumbags has become worse in recent years.

I think the gardai are underpaid (certainly at lower grades) and understaffed but I think they are losing the respect of the community.

Winterlong

My main interaction with the Gardai was from going to Coppers.
So all I can really say is that they speak with a funny accent, like drinking and love nurses.
Great bunch of lads.

Timberrrrrrrr

Never had an issue with them, tough, thankless job that they do well.

genericguy

Have experienced them picking on myself and my friends as a child, for no reason other than the area we grew up in was rough. Have experienced them refuse to come out to assaults and burglaries because they were "too busy". They arrive faster than bullets from guns when you offer to take care of things yourself though. I've noted their absence on occasions where known drug dealers have been murdered, whereas they would have been up those people's arses for weeks on end before suddenly disappearing. And now, on a day to day basis, I hear their cries of lack of support and resources to fight crime while 4 to 6 of them stand on college green to give out fines to people for driving through it at 5pm.

All in all, I wouldn't rate them. I know it's the crap pay that stops useful and hard working humans from joining; I certainly wouldn't work for their money, but the absolute dregs that put on that uniform every day leave a lot to be desired.

Sleepy

I'm often a bit wary of them if I meet them in their professional capacity tbh. It's kind of an instinctual response to wonder what they could be planning to arrest me for!

That said, I've never seen one behave less than professionally when on duty and I believe they're woefully under-resourced and that the legal system is letting them down badly. Myself and Mrs Sleepy were watching "The Guards" last night on RTE2 and after each incident the results of any of the convictions they brought in relation to the crimes they were arresting people for were detailed. People who had carried out vicious assaults on the public, or the Gardaí themselves were getting let off with fines (or in the case of one woman, a caution!), scumbags robbing people's mobiles in broad daylight were being released without charge!

Sh1tbag OToole

Each time I get stopped by a guard I feel like I'm getting good value for my car insurance. So far it has cost me about €2,000 per guard

Potatoeman

genericguy wrote: »

Have experienced them picking on myself and my friends as a child, for no reason other than the area we grew up in was rough. Have experienced them refuse to come out to assaults and burglaries because they were "too busy". They arrive faster than bullets from guns when you offer to take care of things yourself though. I've noted their absence on occasions where known drug dealers have been murdered, whereas they would have been up those people's arses for weeks on end before suddenly disappearing. And now, on a day to day basis, I hear their cries of lack of support and resources to fight crime while 4 to 6 of them stand on college green to give out fines to people for driving through it at 5pm.

All in all, I wouldn't rate them. I know it's the crap pay that stops useful and hard working humans from joining; I certainly wouldn't work for their money, but the absolute dregs that put on that uniform every day leave a lot to be desired.

How would you take care of a burglary yourself unless you knew who did it? Even then you need proof. All they can do is take fingerprints unless there are witnesses.

What do you expect them to do for a known dealer that's killed. They turn up at the murder scene but if friends and family won't talk,what do you expect? It's the same in rough area's, people complain about them but won't talk to them.

razorblunt

I've never, thankfully, had any dealings with them other than routine check points.
On a whole though, they're human and as a job they'd have be the same as every profession, some good, some bad, some downright awful. That's life.

bluestrattos

I had to deal with the Gardai 3 times so far, and every single time, they were nice, sound, professional people, the kind of characteristics you would expect from a police force.

valoren

Majority I've dealt with have been polite and professional.

You'll always get some who rub people up the wrong way, intentionally or not.
You know the type, who talk very condescendingly to you, perhaps looking for a reaction to exploit or any excuse to justify their power tripping.
They're the worst type. It would be true for every police force worldwide I'd imagine.

Rega

Years back I was on my way down to Dingle for a bank holiday weekend. This was back before the towns were bypassed and it could potentially take hours to get from Limerick to Tralee depending on traffic. Anyway, I got stuck behind this German reg car who was sauntering along at 50kph enjoying the scenery. The tailback behind him grew and grew but he was oblivious to it all. Just coming into Castleisland there's a straight stretch so I took my chance and flew past him. Got to the bottom of the hill and out steps a guard beckoning me in.

"Christ, you were fairly moving there." he says.
"Was I?"
"Oh you were"
"Seán, show him the speed gun" he roars over to his colleague at the other side of the road.
Seán shows me the speed I was going.
"Sorry, guard. I got stuck behind a tourist who was barely moving."
"Ah yeah, they're a right curse. Where are you off to yourself?"
"Heading down to Dingle for the weekend, guard."
He fills out and gives me the speeding ticket.
"Don't let this ruin your weekend. You'll have a ball."
"Thanks, guard."
"Good luck lads."

He crosses back over the road.

Just at that moment the fúcking German car tootles past.

Duggy747

Have only had bad experiences with the small town variety who were known for getting up to all kinds of shenanigans behind closed doors.

Probably doesn't help that I know some absolutely disturbed people who went off and joined the force, really the last people you would trust in an authority role or even with a baton........hell, wouldn't even trust them with a desk job on the force. I pity the poor sods who've crossed or will cross their paths in the future.

On the flip side, never had problems with the Gardaí in the cities and know a few others on the force who are good folk and hard workers.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I got pulled twice for speeding. First guard was lovely. Wanted to see my license I was rooting through about three handbags looking for it before he gave up. Told me not to do it again or I wouldn't make it home in one piece.

Second time, about a week later, another older guard. Blue lights, pulls me over. All for writing me a ticket and has a change of heart, tells me next time he will give me a ticket. Was never caught after that.

circadian

I was thrown up against a wall by one at slane and searched, they were really aggressive but I just complied. I heard another one saying to my brother "F***in Nordies".

I was also asked by one in the Monaghan bus station, when I was having a piss if I had any drugs on me, was very strange.

All other dealings have been grand since.

osarusan

Very very little dealing with them apart from them signing a form for me or something.

Had one utter knobhead at a LOI match in Monaghan a few years ago spout some section something point something and instruct me to leave the premises so he could arrest my friend. The summons got dropped later - my friend rang a solicitor, who contacted a solicitor in Monaghan and when the Garda's name was mentioned, the Monaghan solicitor just laughed and said that they'd nothing to worry about and it would come to nothing, which is exactly what happened.

There's a chronic lack of them patrolling Limerick city centre though.

Seth Brundle

JackieBauer wrote: »

Anyway, I think most of them are very cock sure and ignorant so and so's, and some are nice.

What were you doing that you managed to meet most of our gardai to know that they're ignorant and cock-sure?

Widdershins

The contents of a friend's work van was robbed. He was tipped off about the culprit, drove past their yard and saw one of his own pieces of equipment in the yard. He rang the gardai and told them, and he was told to go and take the gear back himself. I can only guess nobody wanted to go over there as the thief is a rough character.

Nekarsulm

Local Gardai are sound. Had a bike stolen in Dublin and the guy who arrived was polite and processional, but he had to admit it was not going to be recovered. His name was Lawless, but I didn't think it wise to make a joke about it

Seth Brundle

Widdershins wrote: »

The contents of a friend's work van was robbed. He was tipped off about the culprit, drove past their yard and saw one of his own pieces of equipment in the yard. He rang the gardai and told them, and he was told to go and take the gear back himself. I can only guess nobody wanted to go over there as the thief is a rough character.

In fairness, what can the gardai do?
Was the stolen equipment identifiable in any way?
I doubt that the garda who was advising them was scared. More likely that there was either a manpower issue or that the gardai would not be able do anything legally.

Widdershins

kbannon wrote: »

In fairness, what can the gardai do?
Was the stolen equipment identifiable in any way?
I doubt that the garda who was advising them was scared. More likely that there was either a manpower issue or that the gardai would not be able do anything legally.

No idea about their powers but I'm assuming garda could've knocked on the door and said he's acting on a complaint, a report or something? There was a report made about the theft when it happened too. Yeah the equipment would've been marked.

AudreyHepburn

genericguy wrote: »

Have experienced them picking on myself and my friends as a child, for no reason other than the area we grew up in was rough. Have experienced them refuse to come out to assaults and burglaries because they were "too busy". They arrive faster than bullets from guns when you offer to take care of things yourself though. I've noted their absence on occasions where known drug dealers have been murdered, whereas they would have been up those people's arses for weeks on end before suddenly disappearing. And now, on a day to day basis, I hear their cries of lack of support and resources to fight crime while 4 to 6 of them stand on college green to give out fines to people for driving through it at 5pm.

All in all, I wouldn't rate them. I know it's the crap pay that stops useful and hard working humans from joining; I certainly wouldn't work for their money, but the absolute dregs that put on that uniform every day leave a lot to be desired.

To be honest when some-one says that they have had nothing but trouble with police, my immediate reaction is to wonder if the issue is with the person themselves, not the Gardai.

I find it hard to believe that every Garda you have dealt with is a bad egg.

Perhaps you need to step back and have a look at how you interact with them; Are you smart with them? Uncooperative? Rude? Disrespectful?

genericguy

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

To be honest when some-one says that they have had nothing but trouble with police, my immediate reaction is to wonder if the issue is with the person themselves, not the Gardai.

I find it hard to believe that every Garda you have dealt with is a bad egg.

Perhaps you need to step back and have a look at how you interact with them; Are you smart with them? Uncooperative? Rude? Disrespectful?

And that assumption is fair enough.

But ive never been disrespectful to them at all, because I know you can't win when dealing with them. A housemate eof mine when I lived on the southside was sexually assaulted, and the police were fantastic. Similarly a friend of mine whose house I was in, had had a car stolen and the police were fantastic. Again this was on the southside.

Any occasion at all that I've dealt with them on the north side, they have universally been useless pieces of sh1t.

Perhaps anyone that rises above the grade of uniformed street patroller may be decent.

Jen Pigs Fly

Had a fair few dealings. When I lost my phone and reported it for my insurance, and the woman behind the counter was brilliant. Was so nice and quick to deal with. When I had a rta claim against me 3 years after the accident happened, I went to the guards to request information about the incident as person claiming against me Had his car remove due to no tax or insurance. Guard told me it is Complete bullsh*the That this is happening and if I decide to go to court he would have no problem giving the report stating this man walked home an said he was fine....

My boyfriend is on the panel to be a guard so I'll have a very close working relationship with one hahaha

whisky_galore

There are just two kinds of Guards; sound lads and complete arseh*les.

Nothing in between.

razorblunt

whisky_galore wrote: »

There are just two kinds of Guards; sound lads and complete arseh*les.

Nothing in between.

Female Gardaí?

Kerrydude1981

Most of them are fairly sound

One night in Tralee while waiting for a taxi home myself and a few friends were sitting outside a local pizza joint,tearing into a pizza the drink hunger had fully kicked in at that stage

Two female gardai just happened to be standing near us and a bit of banter started all harmless fun until a male officer arrived,he didnt like what was going on and one of the female gardai told him to calm down and chill out,this made him worse and he started telling us to move on and stop hassling them

I suppose your man was showing off to the ladies,saying "Im the boss"

RWCNT

razorblunt wrote: »

Female Gardaí?

Ages ago I overheard a fellow in town remark "There's one thing worse than a Garda...and that's a Bhean Garda".

Amused me something fierce, maybe this chap was the bloke?

BalcombeSt4

Like any institution you have your **** and the ones who are alright. I mean they were nice enough in court in the other day

biko

I respect their authoritah

Lyaiera

I had a teacher who was a recently retired guard, a nice enough man. He went for early retirement during the boom/just after the boom when the government were looking for cost savings, and the choice was early retirement or wage cuts. He maintains that was a horrific thing for the force. Lots of the older, ordinary guards who had been around the block, and had learned a lot left, and the young guys who just didn't have the experience built up were left on their own with no real guidance. Or anyone to tell them to cop themselves on if they were acting the bollocks.

It's one man's opinion. I imagine there were a few guys who retired who never got to teach their dirty tricks to the young guards, but I can see how what he was saying would be a big problem. Every business talks about the kind of experience someone builds up that simply can't be written down, or stored (knowledge silos) and how if you get rid of them it can cause a lot of problems.

Wibbs

Lyaiera wrote: »

Every business talks about the kind of experience someone builds up that simply can't be written down, or stored (knowledge silos) and how if you get rid of them it can cause a lot of problems.

+1. I knew a few Guards who jumped around that time too. Did the force no favour IMH. I also know a few who got so disillusioned they left early to pursue other careers. They became disillusioned with some within the hierarchy and really disillusioned with the judicial system here(and the government, or lack of it, behind same). They like many of us became sick of the revolving door policy seemingly at play. That no matter how well they did their jobs, gathered and presented evidence and even if the criminal was convicted, the laxity of the sentencing just wore them down. As one lad who was a friend of a friend said once, the general public would be likely surprised how few scumbags actually commit most of the crimes.

Widdershins

Wibbs wrote: »

+1. I knew a few Guards who jumped around that time too. Did the force no favour IMH. I also know a few who got so disillusioned they left early to pursue other careers. They became disillusioned with some within the hierarchy and really disillusioned with the judicial system here(and the government, or lack of it, behind same). They like many of us became sick of the revolving door policy seemingly at play. That no matter how well they did their jobs, gathered and presented evidence and even if the criminal was convicted, the laxity of the sentencing just wore them down. As one lad who was a friend of a friend said once, the general public would be likely surprised how few scumbags actually commit most of the crimes.

Does that last bit mean it's mostly a small group of them or does it mean something else?

Imnotthehulk

Haven't had any dealings with the Guards for a while ... but while I was living in the and around the area I had reason to visit Pearse Street Garda Station a few times.

The first time I was in there was to get a signature for my passport. Was living in Dublin 2 a few years at that stage and considered it my home, so I went in to Pearse Street and asked the chap to sign my photos. Of course he wasn't particularly polite and told me that I had to go to my local station and he couldn't help me. Told him where I lived and insisted that this was my local station and he sign the photos/form, which he did, after making me wait a while.

The next time was to report the theft of some items of mine from the gym, and the person I dealt would couldn't have been nicer. Very pleasant and helpful. While I was doing this another chap came in to get his passport sorted and he was gruffly (rudely?) told to go to his local station and that they couldn't help him. He went off at that stage.

podgemonster

Went in to Garda station a few years back to get a stamp to declare my car was off the road for 3 months when twas actually only 2 (J1). Handed the form in to the Garda, he looked at it and back at me.

"I know your father, you know?" he said
I started to get a bit hot under the collar
"Oh really?" I replied
"Won the minor county with him in '83"

*Stamps form.
Phew

CruelCoin

Generally unfavourable.

They have all the time in the world to camp the roads for speeders, but no time whatsoever to recover any of the items stolen from the family business over the years.

Latest example -
Digger stolen from the yard.
I call the local station, no answer.
I call the area station, no answer.
I call regional hq, am bollocked over the phone for not calling local........
Guard comes from hq to do the report.
Goes uncontactable.
Another guard comes from the local branch to do a report.
Case gets bounced aound 3 different stations and guardai, before finally settling somewhere.
This was 2 months ago. We're still waiting for them to finalise details with the insurance group.

I mean, what the literal ****. It couldn't be any more disorganised if they tried.

RayM

Individually, some Gardai might be fine, but as an organisation, they're pretty rotten - all too often used as a heavy-gang for the state. I don't think much of their behaviour at protests. I was shoved by a guard once for walking too slowly past a small protest on Kildare Street. The street was crowded, so I had no choice but to walk slowly. They were just shoving random people.

On the plus side, my experiences with the traffic corps have been generally positive - even on the couple of occasions when they were fining me for speeding, they did so politely and with good humour.

livedadream

only ever had two negative experiences with them:

1: two weeks ago was driving along the motor way out of ovens towards cork 120km/h was pulled by a guard on a motorbike,

i overtook a slow moving blue fiat with L plates, went into the overtaking lane overtook them and pulled back into the travelling lane, saw the guard, flasshy lights and everything, waited for him to over take me, eventually figured he was pulling me over (ive never been pulled over in my life after over 10 years of driving)

rolled down the window he checked tax, insurance, NCT had a good gawk inside the car and at the tyres etc, asked for licence, finds nothing untoward,

him: ''you were flying along there for a while''
me: oh okay, i was under the speed limit though its still 120 yeah?
him: yeah it is, it changes further up to 100
me: yeah i know I was overtaking.
him: took you a while to pull in, and notice me.
me: yeah honestly its the first time ive even been pulled over, i didnt think it was me you had the lights on for me to be honest.
him: look ill let you off with a warning but slow down.
me: right thanks.
he then proceeds to let my licence fly off in the wind... because he didnt bother to take his gloves of and was trying to get it back into the plastic pouch thingi, got stuck on his motorbike thank Christ and i tried not to laugh my ass off at how like a carry on film it was.

(i should point there was no motion made with his hands when he ws apparently pulling me over and obviously i dont drive looking in the rear view mirror so clearly wouldnt have spotted him was it not for the lights eventually)

what the feck was he giving me a warning for like? i wasnt speeding.. was generally a very unpleasant guy gave me a serious dose of the creeps too.

second experience was about 8 or 9 years ago:

the travellers left three miniature (teasers) pony's off on the road outside my parents house..
i was heading out the front door to met my brother and sister in law for dinner, open the door to be greeted by three smiling faces. they are all straggley, wormy and clearly a bit starved. my parents have a large empty fenced in field where we used to keep cows and horses so wrangled them in there fed them gave them some water and food.

rang the RSPCA no answer, same as all the sanctuaries etc, so rang the local cop shop, closed (its the country what can you do). rang togher guards got onto a lad who said he'd ring the service to collect them it would be an hour or so, i said great their in a field at the back work away.

An hour came and went no sign, called back got onto a woman who said its nothing to do with them, she actually said
'' has there been a crime committed?' being around 19/20 i was like oh okay what do i do with them? let them back onto the road? she then proceed to berate me saying that if an accident happened i would be charged with endangerment due to letting them back on the road, then told me all about the time she had to go inform a mother of her kid being killed in a car accident did i was to be responsible for that? i literally almost shat myself. looking back she was clearly just demented but can you imaging saying that to someone...
then said id have to wait around for the collection as they were on private property and would need to give permission to have them collected, i kept trying to explain to her they wernt mine and had wandered in off the road she kept telling me they were my responsibility etc etc. i was bawling by the end of it.

in the end my dad who was on holiday had to sort it, they were picked up the next day and the garda's Sergeant apologised for the inconvenience.

she claimed she thought it was a prank the whole time... what a bitch.

only other experiences i have had are the normal ones checkpoints, being out, work related stuff and ive never had a problem i reckon they do a thankless job and are in general underpaid.

Wibbs

Widdershins wrote: »

Does that last bit mean it's mostly a small group of them or does it mean something else?

Mostly a small group that cause the majority of trouble.

OldNotWIse

Never any issue. I don't think they deserve the abuse they get from some people. The hatred for them seems irrational.

Markcheese

Like everyone else ,mixed reviews.
I've met some very pleasant (mainly older) gardai, who get their job done efficently and courteously ..
And I've met some rude,arrogant (mainly younger) gardai , who seem to want to have an argument over anything and cant admit they've made an honest mistake... (as can anyone)

Chijj

Id hedge my bets that the vast majority of people who said that the guards were always pleasant did not grow up in a working class area as a young male.

Jayop

I had one bad experience over 15 years ago when I was a young lad. We were mucking about after a night club in Sligo and I was the only one with a Northern Accent from the group I was in. All we were doing was making a bit too much noise on the way to get chips and we got the attention from the boys. They came over to us and kept all my mates in one place while another took me down an alley and called me all the Northern Bast@rds of the day. Honestly thought he was going to batter the head off me. My mates got a talking to but nothing like what I got singled out for.

Apart from that I've had nothing but very good dealings with them. I didn't let one C-UNT and a group of enabling buddies tar my opinion of the full force. I have a few mates in the force and I've had to deal with them in a professional capacity loads of times. Been stopped for speeding a couple of times years back and found them OK to deal with, accept the punishment and move on. If you don't give them any crap they won't give it back to you in 99% of circumstances.