Rank and file gardaí have welcomed the Government’s decision toissue frontline uniform gardaí with Tasers, saying the devices will help them face down the violent and unpredictable suspects they encounter while on duty.
However, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said it was concerned at the move, adding tasers were “dangerous weapons” that would change Irish policing and the relationship between the Garda and the public.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan TD yesterday brought to Cabinet a proposal to allow 128 Garda members use Tasers for six months as part of a pilot project in Dublin and Waterford-Kilkenny. His proposal, which was agreed, has been in development for some time within the Garda.
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly in Septembersaid he believed Tasers were required to help frontline gardaí deal with the violence they were now facing.
READ MORE
The Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents more than 11,000 rank and file gardaí in a near 14,500 force, said the decision was “a good news day” for frontline gardaí.
[ Tasers – the five-second electric shock coming to frontline Irish policingOpens in new window ]
“We’ve been calling for them for a number of years and we’re delighted,” said GRA vice-president Niall Hodgins. “We had nearly a thousand incidents of attacks on our members last year and about 300 of them were deemed as serious.”
Mr Hodgins said that, in many cases, once a Taser was drawn by a garda a potentially violent incident could be quelled, without the need for them to be discharged.
“It’s a six-month pilot. We believe that this bit of kit will seriously increase our safety and the practical options in the very high stress situations that we have to deal with.”
However, ICCL’s executive director, Joe O’Brien, said frontline policing had been unarmed in Ireland for more than 100 years and the move to introduce Tasers was a “complete step change from that tradition”.
“It is being done at speed and without presenting the evidence which the Minister and Garda Commissioner feel warrants their introduction,” he said. The body-worn cameras were also introduced at speed and without being evidence-based, he said.
“There appears to be a pattern of Government equipping gardaí with new tools on a pilot basis, then moving swiftly to a national roll-out, without independent assessment of whether the tool is working to achieve its intended purpose.”
Though Tasers have been used by some Garda members for years, they have been restricted to the heavily armed personnel in the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Armed Support Unit (ASU) and are rarely discharged.
In September, for example, there were 1,171 “use of force” incidents recorded by the Garda. Handcuffs, which are regarded as a “use of force”, were used 1,109 times that month, with a Taser discharged once.
A longer term examination of Taser use shows they are usually discharged five times or less per month by the ASU and ERU. Very often they are discharged once or twice in a month or not at all. Tasers were discharged six times in September of this year and seven times in July 2023, which were the highest monthly totals since the start of 2021.
Unlike other police forces, frontline uniformed gardaí have never carried firearms. Though Tasers are regarded as “less than lethal” weapons, rather than firearms, their introduction represents a big change for Irish policing.
