None of the measures proposed to strengthen the hand of the police can displace the need for public co-operation in order to reduce crime, the National Forum on Crime has been told.
Mr Johnny Connolly, a criminologist currently completing a PhD on community policing at Queen's University Belfast, said that further increases in the "holy trinity of more police, more powers, more technology", could do "untold damage" to police community relations.
He said only about 5 per cent of crimes were detected by police through their own independent efforts. The rest depended on co-operation from the public. "Is the police willing to loosen its monopoly on crime control?" "The police has shown itself as an organisation with an insatiable appetite for more powers," he said. There had been a significant increase in the numbers and powers of gardai, at the expense of civil liberties, yet crime levels continued to rise.
The result was Garda demands for more police, more powers, more technology. Yet, he said, Ireland had one of the highest percentages of police to public in the world, with one officer for every 325 people, compared to one per 500 in England and Wales, and one per 390 in New Zealand.
Warning of the dangers of further increases in police numbers and powers, he said: "Gardai never had moral authority in areas which are now ravaged by drugs. Thus calls for assistance don't meet with a great deal of enthusiasm, especially among young people who were always at the end of a policing process which served the interests of others." He said there was a need for a change in priorities within the police to emphasise the needs of communities. A community policing approach entailed some form of power-sharing between the community and the police.
This would mean changing the police culture and a devolution of powers within the police itself. At the moment community policing in Ireland predominated in rural and middle-class areas, which were not where the main crime problems lay.
Mr Tony Mac Cartaigh, team leader with the Rialto Community Drug Team, agreed on the need for a change in the culture of the Garda. While the individual police working in Rialto were deeply committed to the community, the experience of the community was that the Garda was over-centralised.
Assistant Commissioner Joe Egan disputed Mr Connolly's conclusions, and said that the Garda's relationship with the community was enhanced by the fact that every garda started at the same level. Mr Connolly replied that there were certain communities in Ireland from which no gardai were recruited.