Garda culture is hindering modernisation, says Garda Inspectorate

The current Garda culture is inhibiting change, and front-line services are not prioritised and protected, the Garda Síochána Inspectorate has said.

Deputy chief inspector of the Garda Inspectorate Mark Toland expressed his “frustration” that many of his organisation’s key recommendations had not been acted on.

The inspectorate highlighted in 2014, for example, that many crimes were not entered on the Garda’s Pulse computer database, and three subsequent reports by the Central Statistics Office found the same problems.

“The current Garda culture is inhibiting change,” Mr Toland said, adding some recent scandals would not have arisen if some of his recommendations had been implemented.

Appearing before the joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, he said although there is a ‘can do’ attitude in the force, it is struggling to introduce key recommendations for the modernisation of Irish policing.

“While staff identified positives such as a ‘can do’ culture and a sense of duty, many described the organisation as insular, defensive, with a blame culture where many leaders are reluctant to make decisions and to speak up.”

Mr Toland said the issue of insufficient numbers of sergeants and inspectors to “guide, train and supervise” rank-and-file gardaí had been raised repeatedly, yet it remained a problem.

Mr Toland said the need for the civilianisation had been repeatedly pointed out to free up gardaí for front-line duties but that progress had not been made in a very large number of posts.

“We believe that front-line services are not prioritised and protected,” he said.”All other police services we engaged with have restructured, reduced the number of administrative areas and now operate from far leaner structures, with fewer managers in order to protect the front line.

“In total, 83 per cent of Garda resources are deployed to front-line services, compared to 93 per cent in some other police services,” Mr Toland said.

“Our evidence, including analysis of data and feedback from the communities we visited, highlights the lack of a visible Garda presence. Another opportunity to increase garda presence is the civilianisation of roles that do not require Garda powers,” he said.

“This is an area that has not been sufficiently progressed. At least 1,500 gardaí are in non-operational roles that could be released for patrol, investigation and community policing duties. At 14 per cent of the total workforce, there is a very low level of civilian staff in the Garda Síochána, compared to other police services.”

Mr Toland said although the inspectorate did not have the statutory power to properly oversee the implementation of its recommendations, the Garda was of late “bringing in” his staff to work with it on executing its key recommendations.

One of the inspectorate’s 11 major reports since its inception was passed to the Policing Authority because it had the authority to oversee its implementation.

Asked by Independents4Change TD Clare Daly why only one report had been passed on to the authority, acting deputy chief inspector Eimear Fisher said the authority was still building its capacity as a new organisation.

The deputy chief inspector added the inspectorate would like to see “more energetic” implementation of recommendations but acknowledged the volume of these - 575 over 11 reports - had caused some problems.

Mr Toland said when the inspectorate was researching the Garda, it found “an ineffective structure, struggling to cope with the modern demands” on Garda services.

“Many headquarters units have duplicate functions in areas such as change management, policy development and oversight,” he said.

“The current structure, which comprises six regions, 28 divisions and 96 districts, is highly inefficient and negatively impacts on the deployment of resources. Centralised decision-making takes place for some low-level issues. We found that people are not always on duty at the right times, in the right places and doing the right things.”

Mr Toland said: “A two-tier community policing system exists, with high numbers of gardaí in Dublin, but significantly less in other areas, particularly rural Ireland.”

He added there was no individual performance management system to address persistent under-performance. “We found inefficiencies in governance, accountability, leadership and supervision.”