New €40m Garda ‘control centre’ opens for Dublin’s 999 calls and city CCTV

A new €40 million Garda control centre would allow the force provide a more “responsive and efficient” policing service to the public, including responding to emergencies and disorder on the public transport network, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.

The ‘control centre’ for the Garda’s Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), which was officially opened on Friday, is shared by the Garda with Irish Rail and Dublin Fire Brigade and the National Ambulance Service. It is situated on the Heuston Station campus in the south inner city.

Mr Harris said the centre would handle all 999 calls from members of the public in Dublin, operating on a 24-7 basis and responding to 800 to 1,000 calls per day. It was the busiest of the Garda’s four regional control centres with about 100 personnel attached to it.

“It acts as a nerve centre for the region, for our Garda operations and our response to calls for assistance and to incidents,” he said of the centre, where CCTV cameras all over Dublin can also be viewed on large screens in a control room.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class review: new hybrid’s range is genuine, but there are compromises

---

Who are the main companies involved in providing refugee accommodation in Ireland?

---

Take That in Dublin review: ‘Whose idea was it to have stairs?’ puffs Gary Barlow as the band roll back the years with dazzling show

---

What is your experience of the deposit return scheme?

---

[ Coalition to hear proposal on Garda use of facial recognition tech after concerns raised ]

While Mr Harris did not take questions from journalists at the launch on Friday, Minister for Justice Simon Harris TD told the media he was confident serious shortcomings in the way the Garda answered and responded to 999 calls had been resolved.

It was revealed three years ago thousands of 999 calls had been ‘cancelled’ – with a response, including gardaí going to crime scenes, provided but no follow-on after service such as welfare checks and crimes or intelligence being recorded. However, the Minister said more personnel had been hired to run the 999 call-answering and dispatch service since reviews into the problems were carried out by the Policing Authority and the Garda. He also said additional training had been provided.

While violence and antisocial behaviour had been a concern, especially in Dublin, for some time, the Minister said any decision around the creation of a transport bureau within the Garda was a matter for the commissioner.

He was not “fixated” on what particular units or bureaus in the Garda were called. He was more concerned with additional Garda members being recruited. The funding was already in place to recruit an additional 1,000 gardaí this year and when they were recruited, extra patrols would be available, including for train stations.

The Minister added that the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, had been closed for periods during the pandemic and about 1,000 fewer gardaí were recruited and trained than planned. However, new intakes of recruits would take place “every 10 or 11 weeks” through this year.

[ Garda on course to lose 500 members via resignations and retirements by year-end ]

The commissioner said the opening of the new control centre for Dublin was a crucial part of modernising the Garda force, adding that those who handled the calls were part of the Garda’s frontline policing as they took calls that were “the most challenging and time-sensitive calls one can imagine”.

“Very often they are dealing with exceptionally difficult and, indeed, traumatic situations,” he said. “But our team here play an absolutely invaluable role on the end of the phone and dealing professionally and compassionately with individuals in their greatest need.

“This move will provide a more efficient delivery of service and will result in great interagency co-operation, particularly in the area of major event management and major emergency response.”

He added that the shared facility would also result in better co-ordination around responding to incidents on the transport network. This was crucial as the 999 service was the “first proper contact” the public had with Garda members.

The Garda’s Dublin control centre began operating at the new Heuston Station building last November, having moved from Harcourt Square in Dublin’s south inner city after more than 40 years located there. While the Dublin control room was still using the command and control CAD system, new software called GardaSafe would be in place by November and was already being used in the force’s control centres in the northwest region and the southern region.