THE THREAT posed by organised drug gangs is reflected in lives destroyed by substance abuse and in a spate of killings that has given Dublin the unenviable status of having the highest rate of gun murder in Europe. The double shooting of cousins Glen Murphy and Mark Noonan in Finglas, last Tuesday, brought to 23 the number of gun murders so far this year, compared to 19 in 2009. At a time when activity in drug dealing has fallen because of the recession, that is a deeply troubling development.
With a general election due within months, political parties are likely to compete on the toughness of their approaches to gun crime. It is a tried and tested way of attracting votes. Longer sentences and more draconian laws have a visceral appeal for worried citizens. But they do not seem to work. In spite of the introduction of harsher penalties, the rate of gun killings in Ireland is now five times higher than in England and Wales. At the same time, only one-in-eight Irish gun murders ends in a prosecution. Other more mundane and ultimately more effective approaches that have worked in other jurisdictions should be considered.
It is possible that a peak may have been reached in the incidence of gun crime. But that is by no means certain. Drug-related crimes quadrupled between 2004 and 2008 in Dublin and, as gangs competed to meet public demand and control distribution networks, they imported guns – lots of them. For two years now, the Central Statistics Office has recorded a drop in the number of drug-related crimes. The quantity of drugs seized has also fallen.
These developments have been attributed to the recession and to falling incomes that have choked off public demand for so-called recreational drugs. As a result, armed thugs are competing in a declining market and attempting to assert their control in disadvantaged communities.
There are no quick or easy fixes in such cases. A lack of educational and employment opportunities tempted many of these young people into crime in the first place. A gap in gang ranks is quickly filled. Addressing the cause, rather than the result, has been on the official agenda for years. But not enough progress has been made. And now those small advances may be rolled back as Government cutbacks come into force. This would be a serious and short-sighted mistake. Young families in these areas require special, co-ordinated services to help them break the generational spiral of crime. Confidence in law and order has to be fostered through intensive on-street policing.
The Government’s four-year plan proposes a reduction in Garda numbers by 10 per cent. It will involve a loss of 1,500 members at a time when pressure on the force is likely to intensify. Flexible rostering under the Croke Park deal is supposed to plug the gaps. That is a fudge. Greater civilianisation within the force has been talked about for years. Now it must be aggressively implemented to free up trained gardaí for on-street patrolling and frontline duties.