THE GARDA Inspectorate has reiterated its recommendation that pepper spray, which can temporarily incapacitate a violent person, be provided to all members of the Garda.
Deputy Chief Insp Gwen Boniface said the inspectorate was now urging Garda management to expedite a review of the sprays currently being conducted.
She was speaking a day after Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said the "jury is out" on the use by gardaí of pepper and mace sprays.
Mr Murphy's predecessor, Noel Conroy, refused to act on the inspectorate's recommendations that sprays be given to all gardaí to help them tackle aggressors. He believed if gardaí carried sprays, some problematic members of the public would respond with higher levels of aggression against members of the force.
However, Deputy Chief Insp Boniface told delegates at the AGSI annual conference in Trim, Co Meath, that the inspectorate was unequivocal in its support for distribution of the sprays to gardaí.
"The inspectorate stands by its recommendations. We would encourage the working [Garda] group to expedite its review. The key factor for us is very simply the safety of officers in the streets."
She understood the concerns of AGSI around the inspectorate's proposal to establish armed regional support units to contain siege incidents, pending the arrival of the Emergency Response Unit.
She stressed that the inspectorate did not believe the status of the Garda as a predominantly unarmed force should be changed.
The regional support units will be made up of uniformed officers who will double as plain clothes armed officers when armed siege incidents arise. The uniformed members will be required to change out of their uniforms, get approval from a senior officer to arm themselves with weapons locked in their Garda cars and then take up their positions.
However, AGSI does not support weapons being locked in safes in the boots of marked Garda cars, as it believes is being proposed. It also feels the lines are being blurred between armed and unarmed officers. A large number of delegates spoke in opposition to the regional support units. During the debate yesterday and the previous two days, no AGSI member who addressed the conference expressed support for the idea.
Deputy Chief Insp Boniface told delegates she understood their concerns that lines between armed and unarmed officers were being blurred. "My hope is that the issue will be successfully addressed in the pilot in the southern region. At the end of the day, the inspectorate's concern is that the Garda, as a routinely unarmed service, is in a position to respond effectively and safely when presented with situations involving firearms."
