THE BIGGEST Garda representative organisation has expressed concern over recently enacted “knee-jerk” gangland legislation saying it was rushed through and may not prove sufficiently robust to withstand legal challenge.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said that if the Government was really serious about tackling organised crime it would properly resource the Garda, irrespective of the recession. “These [legislative] measures cannot disguise the Government’s failure to provide frontline resources both in Garda numbers and financial support for increased operations,” said GRA general secretary PJ Stone.
The comments, carried in the editorial of the GRA’s official magazine Garda Review, come at a time when Garda retirements are accelerating, recruitment has been stopped and the force’s overtime budget has been cut by €28 million to €80 million.
The GRA represents all rank and file gardaí, some 12,000 in a force of 14,500.
Mr Stone accepted Ireland’s economic position was weak but insisted funding to tackle armed gangs would be “money well spent”.
“We welcome the public debate created by the new legislation. It highlights what our members have known for many years; we have the skills to find out who the gang members are, but we need sufficient resources to gather the evidence to secure convictions. That will never change.”
It was “common sense and widely acknowledged” that crime increased in a recession, when police numbers were down or when police morale was undermined.
“We are now encountering all three conditions simultaneously and our government leaders are trumpeting a new charter drawn up as knee-jerk reaction to a criminal justice system ill-equipped to tackle the menace facing us.”
Mr Stone was particularly critical of measures contained in the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 providing for members of the force to give opinion evidence in court relating to the existence of an organised gang.
Under the legislation Garda members of all ranks will be able to give such evidence before the Special Criminal Court when suspects are charged with gang membership.
Heretofore, when opinion evidence has been given, relating to the existence of paramilitary groups, it has been senior officers who have taken to the witness box and presented that opinion evidence on behalf of a wider Garda investigative team.
Mr Stone said the GRA’s members were on the front line of the “confrontational” fight against organised crime. Having members directly involved in confrontational policing giving opinion evidence against people known to them might lead to judicial review.
Mr Stone believed it would be sufficient for officers of all ranks to prepare files on suspects, but for the content of those files to be presented as evidence by a senior officer. “This evidence is vital and should be presented to the courts as gathered intelligence of the force as a whole; a corporate voice rather than individual opinion.”
