The present system for disseminating information about crime among the Garda Siochana is limited and unpredictable. A divisional headquarters on one side of Dublin knows little or nothing about criminal activity in another. As a result, a persistent robber can cross the city, rob a bank or shop, and return home fairly confident that gardai where he has struck will have no criminal intelligence about him.
Recently a well known armed robber from north Dublin was able to rob four banks on the south side of the city in clear view of security cameras and was not identified until his picture appeared in the national media.
In an attempt to prevent this type of crime and, more importantly, to identify patterns of violence or sexual assault, criminal intelligence systems have been introduced by most modern police forces.
The Garda Siochana is in the middle of a highly pressurised operation to install and operate its own system, PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Efficiently).
However, before it is introduced throughout the force the Government and Garda management have to complete detailed negotiations with the Garda staff associations affected by the implementation of the new system.
For their part, the official side seems intent on restricting publicity about the new system's introduction.
During negotiations, the official side, represented by senior civil servants from the departments of Justice and Taoiseach, has emphasised the need to restrict publicity over the new scheme. Official negotiators have said they wish to maintain a "low profile".
The main garda union, the Garda Representative Association (GRA), has informed the official side that PULSE will not be introduced without negotiations or "appropriate remuneration".
The GRA informed the Garda Commissioner at a meeting last month that it was not prepared to co-operate with PULSE pilot schemes until there was a discussion on pay. The association has also sought advice from an information technology consultant on how the new computerised system will affect members' working conditions.
During October and November Garda management held a series of meetings with members to brief them on PULSE. The GRA agreed that members would attend and hundreds have so far taken part in discussions.
Simultaneously, Garda management is attempting to introduce a Garda resource management scheme (known as GERM) which would provide information about the deployment and activities of all gardai in the country. The Garda staff associations regard this initiative as highly controversial and it is not anticipated that it will be brought in soon.
Garda management wants to introduce a "Resource Allocation Model", in which gardai would fill in questionnaires about their daily routines. There appears to be considerable opposition to this among rank and file members, many of whom apparently believe it is intended to do away with jobs.
The issue of rostering is also highly controversial, particularly in the Dublin Metropolitan Area and in the bigger provincial towns, where large numbers of gardai work three-shift rosters. The Garda management wants to reduce the number of 24-hour opening stations, particularly in Dublin, and to restructure the rostering arrangements to provide more gardai on duty at times when there is the greatest demand for policing.
In response, Garda representatives are concerned about loss in earnings from shift allowances and overtime. The rostering negotiations - which involve highly complex discussions about "flexi" and "hybrid" roster tours - are still likely to be among the most difficult in the current round of negotiations.
The rostering and resource management negotiations are all taking place under a process known as the "Bottom Up Review" or BUR which was instigated by the Strategic Management Initiative report on the Gardai, published earlier this year.
It is understood the GRA is entering negotiations on these new processes on the understanding that there is a 2 per cent increase on the table, with further increases for the implementation of PULSE and other new working arrangements.
So far the official side has rejected any further pay increases outside the national wage agreements.
Negotiators from all four Garda staff associations, the Garda Representative Association, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), the Garda Superintendents' Association and the Association of Chief Superintendents - have all demanded that a Garda pay board, independent of the social partnership, be set up to deal exclusively with Garda pay. This has been flatly rejected by the official side, which is trying to have gardai represented alongside the ICTU in the next public pay talks. The Garda associations have so far resisted this. At a meeting between the two sides a month ago the associations were told that an independent Garda pay board was "not going to happen" and would be a "recipe for disaster" from the point of view of public pay talks.
The main issues of contention in the second phase of Garda pay talks, which began two weeks ago, remain the PULSE project, new rosters and the increased employment of civilians to do clerical jobs now carried out by gardai. It is hoped that these negotiations will be completed by February to allow the PULSE network to be introduced.