Do you see the Gardai as a serious police force?

Kermit.de.frog

The Gardai strike me as an organisation from the day when everyone knew everyone else. Outdated and with a level of professionalism that to my untrained eye seems inferior to other police forces. I could be wrong, just my impression.

With the best will in the world I struggle to have confidence in them as a proper police force. I highly doubt i'm the only one in Ireland.

Maybe it's under resourcing? Training? Corruption scandals (which actually come from my first point of knowing everyone in rural Ireland)

P.S I know the judiciary is useless in Ireland. I'll give the guards due for dealing with a pretty much non existent judicial system compared to serious countries.

I don't know what it is about the gardai that just makes me feel they are not up to it in urban Ireland. The routine probably is perfect for country life.

Perhaps Dublin needs a separate new police force with more armed presence to replace the gardai as an answer?

ameirecan

Absolutely not. Junkies and petty criminals roam freely along O'Connell St, our capital's main thoroughfare, and along the Liffey boardwalk which has become an open air drug market. Meanwhile a solitary Garda, fresh out of the bog from Co. Mayo, is standing at the GPO with folded arms. There is no desire to enforce the law or serve the public. The police forces of America, the UK, France etc are usually tall, buff, and physically intimidating. The Gardai do not possess the same dominating physical features and are seen as a joke tbh. Bumbling country buffoons who signed up at Templemore because they didn't get enough points in the Leaving Cert for a real college course.

Perhaps the frontline Gardai are jaded and exasperated at the lack of support from above but they don't seem to care about their job. Even going in to the local Garda station to get a police clearance cert is an ordeal. Half the time the buffoon behind the counter doesn't even know what it is.

erica74

No, and that's because there simply is no enforcement. Nobody is "in fear" of the gardai catching them doing anything, whether that's going through a red light or robbing a house.
I don't know if there isn't enough gardai to enforce the laws or what the problem is but a lot needs to change before the public have confidence in the gardai again.

Graces7

Remembering comments made here on boards ie over the years.. "The Gardai are as much use as a chocolate fireguard" and, when the issuing of tasers was being mooted, "I would not trust the Gardai with a water pistol."

Graces7

ameirecan wrote: »

Absolutely not. Junkies and petty criminals roam freely along O'Connell St, our capital's main thoroughfare, and along the Liffey boardwalk which has become an open air drug market. Meanwhile a solitary Garda, fresh out of the bog from Co. Mayo, is standing at the GPO with folded arms. There is no desire to enforce the law or serve the public. The police forces of America, the UK, France etc are usually tall, buff, and physically intimidating. The Gardai do not possess the same dominating physical features and are seen as a joke tbh. Bumbling country buffoons who signed up at Templemore because they didn't get enough points in the Leaving Cert for a real college course.

Perhaps the frontline Gardai are jaded and exasperated at the lack of support from above but they don't seem to care about their job. Even going in to the local Garda station to get a police clearance cert is an ordeal. Half the time the buffoon behind the counter doesn't even know what it is.

Always found them very good at that to be fair.

The Bishop Basher

No I don’t.

Not so much because of the corruption scandals but more so the way they’ve subsequently handled them.

The corruption is coming from the top down and coverups are deeply engrained in the organisations culture.

Despite the scandals they are utterly useless when you need them anyway..

I don’t trust them and I have zero confidence in their ability to help me if I ever need it so no, I don’t take them seriously at all.

ameirecan

Graces7 wrote: »

Always found them very good at that to be fair.

Good at what? The paperwork? You must be lucky to live near a Garda station with competent staff.

This country will get a serious wake-up call if we ever suffer a proper terrorist attack. Not only are the Gardai amateurish but the Defence Forces and Intelligence Services too. You may remember when a Russian fighter jet invaded our sovereign airspace and we needed the Brits to scramble a jet to chase them away for us. Regarding the incident in Dundalk earlier this year, we were lucky the Syrian/Afghan migrant was only carrying a knife. The death toll could have been a lot higher because the Gardai were so slow to react and had no idea he was even in the country. And how the f*ck do we STILL not know where the attacker is actually from? Surely the Gardai have access to Arabic experts that can pinpoint the attacker's accent? It's incompetence all the way down.

SilverPenney

Gardai not being very intimidating has its good and bad elements. On the one hand, criminals, thugs, terrorists etc. probably aren't too phased by them, on the other hand they are very approachable. I've never once felt afraid of talking to a Gard, as opposed to the paranoid-paramilitary, straight from a Steven Seagal film set lads in France or Spain.

ChikiChiki

Definitely not. You wouldn't be fearful of them like you would be of the tooled up continental police. Thats the way it should be.

Guards shouldn't be there to be friendly. They should be there to maintain law and order which is somewhat lacking.

s15r330

Is that a serious question?

corner of hells

I wonder what the Gardai are doing these days , if only there was a gang war going on and they could be out doing surveillance , practicing their intelligence theories , liasing with other police services , seizing firearms and arresting potential hitmen.

Ah well.

Graces7

SilverPenney wrote: »

Gardai not being very intimidating has its good and bad elements. On the one hand, criminals, thugs, terrorists etc. probably aren't too phased by them, on the other hand they are very approachable. I've never once felt afraid of talking to a Gard, as opposed to the paranoid-paramilitary, straight from a Steven Seagal film set lads in France or Spain.

Someone posted way back a series of photos of airport police around the world and I vowed never to fly again..

Maybe part of it is that we are not used to police with guns? When I was first in Ireland, I had to wait in the car outside a bank for a friend going in and there was a cash delivery. Armed soldiers.. one almost on the car bonnet. I was terrified. Still cannot drive past that bank without shuddering. I had never before seen a real gun close up.

When I posted that on a US forum, I was firmly told I MUST go to classes to overcome my fear of guns as everyone needed a gun to defend themselves

I know which country i would rather live in. Although reading re the Tallaght rioting of police with pepper spray and asps gives rise for concern.

Graces7

Maybe the Traffic cops are more intimidating, from the number of cars they see turning round near checkpoints...

McMurphy

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Definitely not. You wouldn't be fearful of them like you would be of the tooled up continental police. Thats the way it should be.

Guards shouldn't be there to be friendly. They should be there to maintain law and order which is somewhat lacking.

Being both would be ok too.

Fr Tod Umptious

People would fear the Gardai more if they actually feared the court system a bit more.

If punishment was harsher for crime then people would fear getting caught.

Bob Harris

I've said it before and i'll say it again - if you're not at least 6 foot and weigh 14 stone and are in good shape then you shouldn't be a guard.

McMurphy

Bob Harris wrote: »

I've said it before and i'll say it again - if you're not at least 6 foot and weigh 14 stone and are in good shape then you shouldn't be a guard.

How many 6ft 14 stone females are there to apply for openings?

Bob Harris

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

How many 6ft 14 stone females are there to apply for openings?

That didn't take long!

hatrickpatrick

erica74 wrote: »

No, and that's because there simply is no enforcement. Nobody is "in fear" of the gardai catching them doing anything, whether that's going through a red light or robbing a house.
I don't know if there isn't enough gardai to enforce the laws or what the problem is but a lot needs to change before the public have confidence in the gardai again.

It's not the Gardai's fault, it's our lack of prisons and light-touch sentencing regime.

Imagine being a detective, for example. Working for years one trying to crack one of the big gangs which use guns on eachother and terrorise entire cities. Putting yourself in genuine danger trying to infiltrate those gangs and built a case against them.

Imagine actually getting a conviction against a bunch of those f*ckers in court, after all that hard work. Imagine a judge then giving the gangsters, some of whom may have been known for years (and convicted repeatedly) in the realm of violent gun crime, a suspended sentence, or a sentence which when all other factors are taken into account (remission etc), will mean that these serious, dangerous, organised criminals will be back out on the street within a few short years.

Such was the case with that horrific Tipperary burglary a few years ago, to take one example.

Now imagine how you'd feel going in to work the next day as a Garda. How many times could you watch your work literally being torn up in front of you in this manner before you'd just lose interest in the job altogether?

Honestly, it's the equivalent of being a writer and having literally every single article you write for your publication torn to shreds by the editor and never published. You might still be getting paid, but after a while if you know your editor just won't publish what you're writing, you're going to stop putting in as much effort and just live for the paycheque. It has to be demoralising, standing up in court and telling the judge that the convicted defendant is an extremely dangerous criminal who poses a massive threat to public safety, and to then hear within a few minutes that that criminal who you've risked your life to catch, will be back terrorising the area freely within two or three years. F*ck that, like. I know I wouldn't last long in a job under those circumstances.

freshpopcorn

Haven't we done the threads about our
Gardai being small compared to other countries.
Gardai not looking the part.
Not enforcing the law.
Just a general bashing Gardai thread enough!