Trevor Laffan: My fear for the future of gardaí as search for new boss begins

I retired from An Garda Síochána back in May, 2015, after serving for more than 35 years. That’s ten years ago this month.

Policing in Ireland has changed a lot since my day and it’s a different organisation to the one I was part of.

I don’t know too many of the gardaí currently serving and I’m pretty sure not many of them me. We’ve all moved on.

So, as they say, I have no skin in the game at this stage, and it shouldn’t really bother me who runs the show, but it does.

The search for the new Garda Commissioner has nothing to do with me personally, but I’m going to make some observations anyway because, at the end of the day, the outcome will affect everyone as of the community.

Let me say at the outset that I was never in favour of the outgoing Commissioner Drew Harris getting the top job. I’ve never met him, and I know very little about him, but the thought of a policeman from another jurisdiction taking over that position never sat right with me.

We have a unique system of policing in this country, and since its foundation, it has been based around the community.

The community was always the heart and soul of everything we did, and I doubted at the time whether an outsider would ever understand that. Especially someone coming from the PSNI, which has a completely different policing history.

I was fortunate enough to have travelled as part of my work. I dealt with many foreign police forces in those days, and it never ceased to amaze me how well regarded we were as an unarmed organisation.

Our relationship with the community was the envy of many, but not always as appreciated on home soil maybe.

In my opinion, that unique relationship no longer exists. Form- filling, dealing with excessive oversight and lack of manpower has removed gardaí from the street.

It’s no longer an attractive career in the eyes of many, so I suspect lack of visibility will be an ongoing issue.

A new policing operating model was introduced by Commissioner Harris that promised to release more gardaí for outdoor duty. We could expect to see more gardaí on the beat, we were told, but it has failed to deliver.

Just as a previous strategy did when former commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and former Minister for Justice s Fitzgerald tried to justify the closure of rural garda stations.

The Operating Model introduced by Commissioner Harris reduced the number of regions and divisions while giving chief superintendents greater powers, and was designed to promote a more able, community-focused approach.

Instead, it has confused the public, but more importantly, it has confused the hip who are trying to implement it.

Maybe it makes sense in the Dublin Metropolitan Area, but beyond The Pale, it has left the community isolated and without a police service.

Drew Harris has defended his model and stands over the work done during his term. He said body cameras, a new garda fleet, a new uniform, and new technology have been introduced, and millions has been spent on new public order equipment including a water cannon.

There has also been significant investment in investigations into domestic violence, sexual abuse, and in tackling serious and organised crime.

Divisional Protective Services Units are now in every garda division with specially trained gardaí.

Commissioner Harris said there had been 51 successful prosecutions of non-fatal strangulation cases in the last year and 41 coercive control prosecutions, which was a real positive policing outcome of the Operating Model.

That’s all very laudable, but a new model of policing shouldn’t be required to buy cars, new uniforms, and body cameras.

The destruction of community engagement was a big price to pay for what Mr Harris describes as the positive outcomes of his Operating Model.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), which represents middle management, has taken issue with him and has stated that the Garda Operating Policing Model, is not working, and they say every Garda staff association agrees with them.

The AGSI is made up of the people responsible for implementing the polices, and is also responsible for the supervision of on duty. These officers are operating at ground level and have their fingers on the pulse. They know what’s working and what isn’t.

They posted the results of a questionnaire from 2,300 canvassed, which highlighted critical issues affecting frontline policing, resource adequacy, and community impact.

Key findings from the survey included:

Resource Challenges: Almost 96% of respondents believe there are insufficient Garda to meet service requirements amongst the Garda Divisions under the current Operating Model.

Community Policing Concerns: 82% of Sergeants and Inspectors who responded to the questionnaire indicated that the Operating Model did not have a positive impact on Community Policing.

In regard to rural policing and high visibility policing, more than 90% of respondents indicated that High Visibility Policing has not increased since the introduction of the Model, and that the Operating Model is unsuitable for rural policing.

Size of Garda Divisions: An overwhelming 98% of reported that the Three-County Garda Divisional Model is not working effectively.

Call for Review: A near-consensus, 98% of respondents, called for an urgent review of the Operating model.

This survey suggests to me that change is obviously required, but I struggle to see how that can come about. If, at the end of the hunt for a new commissioner, we replace one outsider with another, then where does that leave us?

Because, unless they are chosen from within the organisation, which seems unlikely given the current financial implications for internal candidates, the next Garda Commissioner will also struggle with the community-based philosophy unique to An Garda Síochána.

I know I shouldn’t be bothered, but I am.