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Gardaí forced to issue tickets 'to meet targets'

  • 28-04-2005 11:51am
    #1
    Eoin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,263 ✭✭✭✭


    No real surprises I suppose, article on breakingnews.ie:
    Traffic gardaí are being forced to hand out speeding tickets to ensure their division stays out of the relegation zone, it was claimed today.

    There is a league table of Garda divisions, with serious consequences for the unit which is ‘bottom of the league’ for detections.

    At the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) yesterday, gardaí voted overwhelmingly to condemn the ‘underhand approach’ of garda management in introducing a performance management system and the negative impact that the traffic strategy was having on the image of the force.

    “Every bank holiday weekend, a league table (for speeding tickets) comes from Garda Headquarters,” said Garda Michael Kirby from the Clare division.

    “They start off in Donegal and they go right down through it. And the division that’s in the relegation zone is in trouble. I know because at one stage my division was in the relegation zone, bottom of the table.”

    He said serious pressure had been put on the members of the division to go out and get the numbers.

    “That’s what this is about. It is about revenue collecting. It’s not about saving lives, it’s not achieving that. It’s not about high visibility either.”

    Garda Michael Lynch from the Dublin Metropolitan East Division said the current approach was bringing the entire system of law enforcement into dispute.

    If you bring in a regulation that a reasonable person would consider unreasonable, you’re starting on a slippery slide. If one law is stupid, there may be another law that’s stupid.”

    He said a speeding ticket had recently been given to an elderly woman who was doing around 55kmph in a 50kmph zone.

    “If you have an old lady who wouldn’t have a library book overdue, getting caught for speeding, there’s something wrong,” he said.

    The contributions were in direct contrast to that of Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, who had told the GRA conference that Gardai on traffic duty were not picking on motorists who were easy targets.

    “I again challenge that perception and wish to clearly state that no such strategy has ever been directed by Garda management,” he said.

    However, Garda Michael Corcoran from Cork city division said that with a policing plan target of 11 million speed checks per year, gardaí were left with little choice.

    “It’s very easy for someone to go into a ‘squeeze’, where traffic has to slow right down from 60mph zone to 30mph zone – you’ll catch dozens of people that way.

    But you won’t be doing the force any favours by doing it that way because everybody says: ‘They’re at it again’,” he said.

    Mr Corcoran said he knew two traffic gardaí who had been transferred out of a division because they had not met performance targets.


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