Frontline gardaí: ‘We’re demoralised and under pressure... There’s zero morale’

On a bitterly cold Dublin afternoon, the street-level drug dealers are busy. On Aston Quay in the south inner city, a small group of addicts looking to score huddle around two men with drugs to sell. They quickly assess what’s on offer, hand over their money and take their deals. More buyers come and go as the scene is repeated. It’s busy today, as it is most days.

One of the visitors to the pop-up drugs supermarket spots two suitcases, which seem to have been abandoned on the footpath. He nervously takes the handle of one, and wheels it away and around the corner. Just then, an Asian tourist runs out of a nearby shop and gives chase. The man who has taken it realises he has been spotted and surrenders the case without fuss. He looks too broken from drug addiction – more sad than bad – to mount any resistance.

Across the river, on Buckingham Street Lwr, off Amiens Street, a more organised drug-dealing scenario unfolds. Young men in expensive jackets, wrapped up against the cold – and prying eyes – in scarves and hats, speed about on electric scooters. They exchange drugs for money with people waiting in parked cars or loitering on the streets. The buyers and sellers disappear immediately when the transactions are completed.

The sheer demand for the drugs being offered for sale, in daylight on a midweek afternoon, is breathtaking. And now more and more gardaí are concerned that the resources required to even temporarily disrupt this trade – and mount other labour-intensive proactive policing operations – are slipping away.

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New figures show the number of gardaí in the force are now almost 650 off their peak of 14,750 in March 2020. While Covid-19 forced the closure of the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, the process of restarting Garda recruitment has been slow. All the while, Garda members have continued to retire while others have resigned after being enticed away by the private sector.

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Gardaí who have spoken to The Irish Times say frontline policing is now under real pressure. They say the strength of the Garda has depleted at a time when policing has become more specialised. More and more gardaí have been diverted away from the front line, on the streets, into specialist units investigating sexual offences, domestic violence, fraud and cyber crime.

While the sources say a specialised capability is required in a modern police force for many crime types, they believe it should not come at the expense of frontline or community policing.

We used to always complain that we didn’t have enough vehicles to run a police force. But now we haven’t got enough people to drive the vehicles

They say the combination of Garda numbers falling, and the bleeding away of personal into the new or expanded specialist units, has been a “devastating” double whammy for the frontline.

“We used to always complain about the Garda fleet; that we didn’t have enough vehicles to run a police force. But now we haven’t got enough people to drive the vehicles,” said one Garda member. “I know of two busy [Garda] stations in Dublin and between the two of them they are stretched to have one car out early in the mornings; one car for two stations.”

Another source said that in recent years, between 600 and 1,000 new gardaí were promised by Government each year. While the 1,000-recruit figure was for the current year, and must be given time to materialise, he was sceptical about that target being met.

“In Dublin, and really around the country, we’re struggling to respond to the level of calls we are getting,” he said. “When people dial 999, we don’t have sufficient resources to provide for the need. You’ve hundreds of calls waiting at any one time. And the people committing crime know the response is going to be slow, if at all.

“Our numbers are way down and that puts huge pressure on gardaí and they are demoralised. There’s zero morale, even though most of us are the type of people who always wanted to join the guards, from the time we were kids.”

[ Scale of drug-dealing outside Dublin cafe is ‘relentless’, says owner speaking out in ‘act of desperation’ ]

A Dublin-based source said he was not surprised to learn just over 100 Garda members had resigned, in favour of other career options, last year. “That is very new for the guards,” he said.

“Not that long ago, if somebody resigned, it would be the talk of the job but it’s much more common now. People are coming in, getting their experience and maybe doing a few courses through the job to beef up the CV and skills.

When people dial 999, we don’t have sufficient resources to provide for the need. You’ve hundreds of calls waiting at any one time

“Then they can see how oversight is gone crazy and the lack of resources and when they are offered another job they go. You hear of people being headhunted through LinkedIn: for cybersecurity, risk management, all those types of jobs. And then you have lots of other [gardaí] retiring the minute they can, the minute they have the 30 years’ service done for the pension. They’re queuing up to get out.”

His colleague agreed: “You’re now starting to see a retention problem [in the Garda], just like in the Defence Forces, and the Government hasn’t learned the lesson from the way the Defence Forces has gone. You can’t leave people without resources and under massive pressure and expect them to stay, not when there are so many other jobs elsewhere.”