Pace of Garda reform must dictate numbers

Parties on both sides of the forthcoming electoral contest are engaged in a pre-election auction on crime.

Not only are they seeking to outdo each other with more draconian laws and tougher penalties, but they are also matching each other bid-for-bid with promises to increase the number of gardaí.

Having increased the size of An Garda Síochána by some 2,000 during its current term, the Government has now boldly promised to increase the force by another 1,000 members. Minister for Justice Michael McDowell made this promise before Christmas at a press conference convened to outline his response to a spate of gangland killings.

Not to be outdone, Fine Gael and the Labour Party held a press conference the same day to launch a hastily completed joint policy document on policing in which they too promised to increase the number of gardaí by 1,000.

The origin of the commitment made by the current Government to increase Garda numbers from 12,000 to 14,000 is somewhat unclear. The promise was first made by the then minister for Justice John O'Donoghue, on Questions and Answers some months before the 2002 election. He did not, however, say how the neatly rounded figure of 2,000 was arrived at. This promise was headlined in the subsequent Fianna Fáil manifesto and replicated in the Progressive Democrats' manifesto. Inevitably, the figure made its way unaltered into the Programme for Government and, unchallenged, it became - or is about to become - a reality.

To this day no objective assessment of policing needs, manpower study or organisational criteria have been produced to explain why in 2002 it was assumed we needed 2,000 more gardaí. Notwithstanding this, the additional 2,000 gardaí were recruited, albeit somewhat more slowly than expected, and were added to the already bloated Garda pay and pensions roll. Moreover, they were deployed within an organisation largely unchanged from that which the existing 12,000 or so members already operated.

To be fair, a number of steps have been taken in recent years to transform the structure and management of An Garda Síochána and to improve the technology and expertise to which it has access. Greater financial accountability and a new legislative basis for the force have been put in place. A strategic management initiative has been implemented. There have also been significant moves towards greater civilianisation.

Hundreds of staff previously involved in processing grants for the Department of Agriculture were redeployed to a designated call centre in Castlebar to process entries on the Garda Pulse computer system. Civilians have been employed to handle clerical tasks and are also to be recruited for specialist posts. This means that in addition to the 2,000 extra gardaí, several hundred more civilians are, or will soon be, working on policing tasks.

A new Garda reserve has also been established that in addition to giving the force greater community focus, will give it more flexibility when it comes to manpower.

Some improvements in technology are also in train, the most significant of which is a long overdue direct garda-to-garda digital radio system that is currently being tendered.

In all other labour-intensive organisations, the introduction of more flexible personnel structures, the deployment of additional support staff and improvements in technology would give rise to efficiencies that would lead to a reduction in frontline personnel.

However, in our police force it is having the opposite effect. Instead these reforms and improvements are occurring simultaneously with a 15 to 20 per cent increase in the most expensive staff. The increase in our population requires some additional gardaí but it cannot justify a dramatic increase in numbers on this scale.

There appears now to be only one binding criterion which our politicians are using to determine the size of An Garda Síochána: increased levels of public concern on crime must be met with more gardaí. It matters not that this rising fear of crime may be unjustified or that additional frontline uniformed officers may not be the best way to solve crime. The political parties have concluded that the public's demand for better policing must be met by recruiting more gardaí.

The irony here is that while the political parties are promising 1,000 more gardaí, they have all already accepted that there are serious inefficiencies in how we are using the numbers we have at our disposal.

One of the most significant aspects of the reform process McDowell has been implementing has been the establishment of the Garda Inspectorate, headed by former Boston police commissioner Kathleen O'Toole. Among the first tasks McDowell gave O'Toole and her team was to assess the manpower needs and deployment of personnel within the Garda. The inspectorate says it will take several months to complete that report but notwithstanding this the Government has prejudged it, assuming it will find we are already 1,000 officers short.

The main thrust of the recently published Fine Gael and Labour document is a promise to create a new grade of community garda, to overhaul "Garda rostering" and to increase civilianisation. However, the document goes on to assume that "at least" an additional 1,000 gardaí will be needed - a figure which is simply plucked from thin air.

All of this is symptomatic of a haphazard approach to the growth in public service recruitment. Instead of tackling the complex task of reform, public money is being thrown at recruiting more people. It is the premise itself that needs to be contested. More is not necessarily better and it is certainly not cost-efficient.

Maybe what we need is a moratorium on numbers until reforms in Garda management, technology and civilianisation are implemented. Then we could revisit whether we need more gardaí. Maybe we have enough officers and instead of promising more, our politicians should be promising to make better use of those ones we have.