Garda response times and usefulness

MagicSean wrote: »

What were you expecting? Do you watch CSI by any chance?



No I don't, don't know what a tv show has to do with anything. They didn't even make an attempt to look for anyone even though two of our neighbours houses were robbed just before it. It's not an area where there's a lot of crime so they'd have had plenty of time. In one of the houses the robber got cut on the window and there was blood around the place. They didn't even think of linking the robberies. Don't know about the kind of guards are where you live but it's a different story over here, we get the total morons. One of my friends did work experience in the station and they just played pranks on each other and went for drive in the middle of nowhere to waste the time.

It should be made a lot more difficult to be a guard, the stupid ones wouldn't get in and the good ones wouldn't be given a bad reputation.

Call the Gardai once after a stone broke my windshield and I could see the gang of kids doing it.


They told they dont go into that estate at night or some such bollocks and they'd call out to my house to make a report

MagicSean wrote: »

Nothing to do in Mullingar? Isn't there a large violent traveller feud in progress there for the last four years?

But I never said that

They have always had gaurds to respond to minor incidents, I lived there for ten years I have a pretty good idea of what they're actually dealing with and their presence on the streets. I was saying there were always gaurds about town patrolling, always gaurds who weren't doing much else when you went into the station to get a form, always responded to house calls quickly compared to Tallaght where you are waiting half an hour to get a form and get it signed because there is a whole heap of people in the station, its always jammers, I've been there four times and they are so understaffed considering what is going on in Cushlawn/Killinarden/Jobstown is nothing compared to the estates in Mullingar and the traveler feuds, compared to the size of Mullingar and the crime is nothing compared to what the tallaght station is dealing with and they just don't have the staff, there should be gaurds "doing nothing" so they can actually help you when something does happen as opposed to waiting four hours for a response.

Grayson wrote: »

On the way home from the pub i was jumped by some dickheads who beat 7 types of **** out of me. 5 minute response time. the next day they went to every single business nearby that had CCTV. they identified them and the guys pleaded guilty just before trial.

Of course i had that power mad tramp that wouldn't stamp my passport last week. But when I needed them, they were there. So I can't complain really.

Did you ask them where they were when you were getting the sh1t kicked out of you?

Once called the guards and they rang me back twenty minutes later asking if I still needed someone to come out
On the other hand got assaulted in a nightclub and the particular guard was very helpful and trial is soon.. It's just like any other job really, I'm sure we've all had useless doctors, and some good ones, same goes for solicitors and teachers and anything else you can think of!

ejmaztec wrote: »

Did you ask them where they were when you were getting the sh1t kicked out of you?

It was after the pubs close. the cops there usually do laps of the place. Plus it took about three minutes for the whole thing to happen. I was whacked on the back of the head with a Heineken bottle (my mate, the sarky ba$tard swore he could see the impression of a star on the back of my head the next morning). I fell to the ground and then the kicking started. Except for one of them that was filming it.

All in all, it took a few minutes.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that think, believe and expect that in every Garda Station around the country sits a team of Gardaí waiting for You to call. I hate to have to dispell this myth but you call will be one of many similar such calls that every guard has to deal with on an hour by hour basis.

A lot of districts are huge, as in an hour from one side to another with only one car available to do the calls. So if you have one call half an hour away and lets just say its a simple drunk prisoner. You are looking at half an hour to get there, a few minutes to deal with the situation depending on circumstances and half an hour back to the station and another 20 mins at least processing a prisoner. So in total you could be looking at an hour and a half easily, and that doesn't include the drive to the next call. I can promise you that the guards themselves would rather be dealing with a more rewarding task ie catching some 'real criminals' as people like to say, rather than some b####x that can't hold his liquor, that they've probably arrested a hundred times before.

Whereas it is understandable that for many when they phone the guards it is a crisis in their lives and want immediate solutions/assistance etc. However it will not be the only such crisis going on that day in that area and some will be worse than yours. Its similar in fashion to A+E, your broken leg hurts like fook and you want it fixed now, but someone else's chest pains will have to be dealt with first, even if it turns out to be indigestion from eating too many kebabs.

The fact your house was broken into and property taken is horrible and a huge invasion of your privacy, life etc BUT more than likely the thief is gone, they pulled their sleeves down over their hands so no prints, even if they cut themselves a there is blood at the scene we have no DNA database (because of the bleeding heart liberals think we'd be a police state with one, when in fact it might bring us out of the 1980's). The guard will know this and even if the suspect is caught he/she will be out of the courthouse before the guard.

I believe that the police deal with 10% of the population 90% of the time, the inverse is also true. The masses in this country that cant run their own lives without the interaction of the police is nuts. The amount of man/woman hours spent on things like dealing with drunks, neighbourly disputes, negotiating between fighting couples, taking women to refuges etc only to see them back with their partner the next day. You can't ignore it, cos what happens if the next time someone ends up injured or worse dead. Who's fault will it be? The police of course!

I know that not every policeman/woman is an ideal of what you want and sometimes poor service is provided, but that is also true of every profession in this little country of ours. Gardaí's pay and working conditions have been savaged in recent years so morale is incredibly low. There has been a huge exodus in the recent retirements, adding increased pressure to an already under pressure force. The fleet is falling apart and Garda stations are closing around the country with more closures to follow. I know Gardaí that are so lazy they wouldn't get out of their own way, these are in the minority and I know ones that take their paperwork home or stay behind after their shift to do the report on the burglary that'll never be solved, these are more typical.

It's not a case of doughnuts and 'losin da hattitude', it's a case of being real about things. For every example of poor service I can give a hundred of outstanding dedication and professionalism. Remember the police are not the cause of, and the solution to, all life's problems!!

Rant over!

It would seem that the society we live in a pizza will get to your house faster than the gardai !!!!!!