Céifin Conference:Chief inspector of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate Kathleen O'Toole said yesterday she was worried about the safety of unarmed gardaí because of increasing gang-related violence.
However, she hoped she would never have to recommend arming all gardaí. She said she had "a huge respect" for the fact that gardaí were routinely unarmed.
"We'll make recommendations to enhance their safety through equipment and training," she said. "Just because we come from North America doesn't mean that things that worked there will work here in the unique Irish environment."
She was speaking at the closing day of the 10th annual Céifin Conference in Ennis. Ms O'Toole told delegates that community policing should be the foundation of all policing and gardaí should be community police officers first, whatever their role.
She began her police career in Boston and told how the Boston police switched emphasis to community policing in the 1980s, when crime rates were soaring and it became clear that something was "dramatically wrong" with the policing strategy.
Deploying armed riot police and harassing unemployed men on street corners was not the answer, she said. Instead, police liaised with community leaders and worked with the social services and departments such as health and education.
But it was not "soft policing," she said. "We were relentless. We made life miserable for the thugs, the very small percentage of the population who were wreaking havoc for the vast majority."
Grove Hall was the most violent "no-go" neighbourhood in Boston at that time but a study found that, in a five-year period, just over 2 per cent of people in Grove Hall had been arrested or had any negative encounter with the police. "So we decided we needed to focus on those, without casting a wide net and harassing everyone else," she said.
Ms O'Toole pointed to one year in Boston when police were predicting major violence that summer. Before the school holidays, she asked her gangs unit to compile a list of 1,000 teens who were most likely to kill or be killed that summer. "In over 850 cases we were able to get into the home with a team of police social workers, clergy, mental health professionals," she said.
"It's tough to say how many lives we saved . . . but I know we saved some." The change in policy meant that Boston's homicide rate had been halved in a few years, she said. However, after the September 11th attacks the pendulum had begun to shift back following protests from police chiefs and community leaders.
Meanwhile, she said her inspectorate had not been asked to look at the apparent refusal of gardaí to search suspected rendition flights arriving at Shannon airport, but the Irish Human Rights Commission would soon be publishing a report on the issue and she would "definitely" look at the findings with interest.
"And if we think it's appropriate at any time in the future to look at that we will . . . policing is all about human rights," she said. "Whether it's in Ireland or elsewhere, you can count on me being on the human rights bandwagon".
If there was a "glaring concern" from the community about police practices, then the inspectorate would look into it, she said.
Ms O'Toole also said there was "a definite problem" with the Garda's promotional system as it now took an average of 12 years to get promoted from garda to sergeant and a further eight years to reach inspector grade. "I'm not aware of any agency . . . in the private sector or public sector where it takes that long to get a first promotion," she said.
