bbeetttteerr ppoolliicciinngg ffoorr ssaaffeerr ccoommmmuunniittiieessa programme for partnership

and accountability

June 2006

labour.ie

Better Policing for Safer Communities

A Programme for Partnership and Accountability

Introduction Labour continues to listen to the views and concerns of families and communities

across the country on a range of issues.

A primary issue that many people are expressing deep concern about is crime and

anti social behaviour. People want more effective policing.

This document sets out our considered policy response to what we have heard.

Our purpose is to restore to our people the amenity and enjoyment of their homes

and communities.

Brendan Howlin TD

Labour Party Spokesperson on Justice, Equality and Law Reform

The Problem

When the Garda Síochána was founded in 1922, Ireland was a rural, close-knit

society. The upheaval of the previous years had been largely of a political nature.

For the new police force the crime rate was low and anti-social behaviour was

sparse. Policing was simple then and remained relatively uncomplicated for most of

the twentieth century.

With the onset of the Celtic Tiger and the rapid transformation of Ireland from a rural

farming society to an affluent urban society it was inevitable that severe social and

policing problems would arise. Now, there is more crime, more drug and alcohol

abuse, more public order offences and more anti-social behaviour, making life a

misery for so many citizens.

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The growth in crime, the impact of alcohol and illicit drugs on crime, the increased

urbanisation of Irish society, the growth of the Irish economy and the consequent

increase in disposable income, the ending of emigration which has contributed to a

large youth population and the changing nature of authority: all of these factors have

altered the character of Irish society and created new demands on policing.

The table below shows the increase in crime figures since 1950.

Indictable Non-Indictable Total 1950 12,232 147,582 159,814 1960 15,375 102,795 118,170 1970 30,756 169,581 200,337 1980 72,782 402,812 475,594 1990 87,658 462,088 549,746 1998 85,627 413,340 498,967

The figures show that the total amount of recorded crime increased by a factor of

three from 1950 to 1998.

Changes in the way statistics are compiled since 2000 makes direct comparison

between present day and historic figures impossible. Offences are no longer classes

as either indictable or non-indictable. Instead, there are “headline” and “non-

headline” offences.

For 2005 there were 101,659 “headline offences” recorded, up 3% on the previous

year. And there were 316,389 non-headline offences in that year.

And we are now, in addition, facing a situation where human life has become

incredibly cheap as armed drug gangs wage war on each other and innocent lives

have been lost in the process.

Of course, it doesn’t affect everywhere to the same extent. But whole communities –

including some of our most marginalized communities – have suffered in their

quality of life due to lawlessness, vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

Criminal and anti-social behaviour inflicts misery on inadequately policed urban

communities, particularly on the elderly.

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There is still no sufficient appreciation, at political and senior Garda level, of the

corrosive effect on communities besieged by anti-social behaviour.

Confronted with the true scale of the problems, which face some communities, the

temptation is to blame others or to reach for a quick-fix solution. But it’s not the just

judges’ problem. It’s not just an issue of sentencing. It’s not just that we need more

or stricter laws. We need to tackle the phenomenon of anti-social activity – directly,

on the ground.

What we are now experiencing is to a large extent a consequence of decades of

under-investment in neglected areas. The idea that we can solve these problems

without reaching into our pockets is an illusion. Labour believes that the men and

women of the Garda Síochána deserve resources, equipment and modern

management structures.

The fact is that suburban neighbourhoods of this country are at present poorly

policed. Based on their population, they do not have anything approaching a fair

allocation of the existing Garda personnel or resources.

But of, course, crime is concentrated in urban not rural areas and in areas with

younger rather than more mature, settled households. South Dublin, for example,

has a very high youth profile. 29% of its population live in areas of social

disadvantage. Unemployment rates in these areas remain at over 50%. There is a

high proportion of single parent families and a huge deficit in neighbourhood

facilities, whether for sport and recreation or even health centres and welfare

offices. It includes two of the six most socially and economically deprived areas in

the country.

Yet its policing profile fails to match its demographic profile. The level of unmet

policing need is truly alarming.

And the same picture can be painted in areas of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and

Galway.

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There is of course a need for anti-delinquency and delinquency prevention policies.

But law is one thing, law enforcement is another. And what is primarily required is

not just a legislative but also a policing response – one drawn up and implemented

in cooperation and agreement with the communities whose neighbourhoods so

badly need effective policing.

The hard fact is that we know, and have known for a long time, that we need more

police on the streets but little or nothing has been done about it.

The traditional approach

Ireland’s policing structures, having remained virtually unchanged since the

foundation of the State, are now far removed from what is internationally recognised

as best practice.

The need for a radical shake-up of existing controls and oversight mechanisms

within the Gardaí is beyond question. The Garda Síochána has long been very

defensive about itself and slow to admit to serious structural and procedural

problems within the force, and even slower to do anything about them.

The relationship between the Gardaí and many local communities is problematic

and in these areas confidence in the Gardaí has waned, particularly among young

males - the group Gardaí are most likely to encounter.

The relationship between the Gardaí and some local communities has deteriorated

over the years. And the more a policeman is hindered from participating in the

community, the more isolated will the police become. There will be less

understanding of public sentiment, less exercising of discretion, more public

irritation, less sympathy for the police and an increase in downright hostility and

further isolation.

We believe in rebuilding confidence in the relationship between police and

community by establishing community structures, which would have a degree of

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control over Garda policy at neighbourhood level. In short, we aim to reconnect

police and community.

Traditional policing often fails to enlist the potential of the public in the process of

crime prevention. Traditional policing tends to be reactive in character, dealing

primarily with the symptoms of crime rather than with the causes. The dominant

police commitment to motorised patrols does not appear to reduce crime, to

decrease the possibility of victimisation, to increase the chance of catching victims

or to reassure the public enough to affect their fear of crime. Neither does it create

greater trust in the police. In fact, mobile car patrols inhibit police officers from

cultivating community contacts.

The core point is that a great deal of police work ignores the issues that most

communities regard as a priority, in particular low level social disorder and quality of

life issues.

Often, for communities, the main concerns are not with crime as such but with

persistent anti-social behaviour, which has a corrosive effect on community quality

of life. The Labour Lord Mayor of Dublin Michael Conaghan’s 2004 Commission on

Crime and Policing describes this as:

‘A cumulative process that gradually undermines peoples’ confidence and

belief in their neighbourhoods. Various incidents, such as open drug dealing,

public consumption of alcohol and so on, weave together to present people

with an unappealing vision of life in their neighbourhood’

A recent study in Dublin’s North Inner City confirmed that persistent anti-social

behaviour, much of it drug-related and often committed by a small number of

people, can operate as a major disincentive for community involvement in local

community activity or voluntary work.

Addressing such fears and overcoming these obstacles is an important challenge

for the development of police/community partnerships.

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There is much anger, frustration and annoyance at community level. Quality of life is

being chipped away and, in streets, gardens, parks and public spaces, the sense of

security and safety is being undermined on a daily basis.

But, alongside that anger and frustration, there is a willingness to be involved in the

problem’s resolution.

People have enormous energy and want their community, street, park and city, of

which they are very proud, to function and to underpin rather than to diminish their

quality of life. This enormous resource must be included in both framing and

delivering a solution.

A related issue concerns the growing fear of crime as distinct from the actual

likelihood of victimisation. Quality of life for the families and individuals living within

any community can be adversely affected by only a small number of offenders. It is

the behaviour of such offenders that leads to a crippling sense of fear for many and

denies people the right to have quiet enjoyment of their home, property and

surrounding environment.

The police must be involved in developing tactics to enhance feelings of safety,

satisfaction with the policing provided and confidence in the police. The task of

policing involves providing safety, decency and a sense of well being within

community.

Community policing in the Garda Síochána

At present community policing is perceived to have a very low status in the Garda

Síochána. The Garda Síochána Strategic Management Initiative Steering Group

(2004) concluded that the role of community policing was not well defined and that

‘it is poorly organised, suffers from a diversion of resources and lacks performance

management and planning’. Its key findings were:

• There is a requirement to refocus the role of community/rural Gardaí;

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• Community/rural policing is to some extent dependent on the personal

commitment of local management to this form of policing and the level of

support provided;

• The diversion of resources to other duties would appear to vary significantly

within the force. The lack of available records to quantify this is in itself an

issue of concern;

• There is a considerable lack of supporting infrastructure for community/rural

policing units;

• Overall, reporting structures in relation to community/rural policing units vary;

• The work and outcome of the work undertaken by community/rural Gardaí is

inappropriately measured, if at all

The Oireachtas Justice Committee’s Report on Community Policing listed the

following concerns:

• There is no clear command structure;

• There is insufficient communication between the national community relations

office and frontline community Gardaí;

• The activities of community police or the community policing structures are

not sufficiently formalised within the force;

• Community policing is under-resourced;

• It does not have a proper career path or equality of status with respect to

working conditions and allowances;

• Community policing personnel are moved to other policing units when the

need arises;

• Community police receive different allowances than other police e.g. time-off;

• The programme for recruiting suitable members to community policing is ill

conceived;

• Community police do not receive adequate training, in conflict resolution,

problem solving or communication skills;

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Department of Justice figures from this year show how limited is the present

commitment to community policing. Numbers of Community Gardaí in some of

Dublin’s most vulnerable areas have actually dropped.

• The south inner city has lost 5 of its 27 community Gardaí.

• Crumlin had 5 community Gardaí at the end of 2004 but now has just 4.

• Tallaght had 24 community Gardaí but is down to 20 now, the same figure as

2002 when Michael McDowell became Minister for Justice.

• Finglas has only 12 Community Gardaí, down one from 2004

• Blanchardstown, has only 17, two fewer than it did in 2001.

Community policing is at a crossroads. Previous efforts in the form of

Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert have failed to meet the requirements of

the public. In Dublin, Gardaí have progressed beyond these schemes by

establishing policing forums that involve regular consultations between community

representatives and Gardaí. However, significant problems remain. These include,

above all, a lack of clarity about what community policing entails; a lack of priority

and funding for community policing within the Garda Síochána; and problems

associated with accountability to communities in respect of policing.

What is Community Policing?

We all say we want – and need – community policing. There are many concepts and

definitions of what this means. It could, on a narrow definition, be the responsibility

of the 400 or so Gardaí assigned exclusively to community policing duties. It could

be a PR-driven ‘outreach’ programme. The Patten Report on reform of policing in

Northern Ireland put it as follows.

We received many submissions, from all parts of the community and from

elsewhere, which called for more “community policing”. The term has many

definitions and has become somewhat devalued by frequent and

indiscriminate use. What most people want to see is the police participating in

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the community and responding to the needs of that community and the

community participating in its own policing and supporting the police.

What we emphatically do not mean by “community policing” is vigilante

groups policing neighbourhoods with baseball bats or, at the other extreme,

what the Philadelphia police chief, John Timoney, has described as “sitting

around the trees, holding hands and singing Kumbaya”. What we do mean is:

• the police working in partnership with the community;

• the community thereby participating in its own policing; and

• the two working together, mobilising resources to solve problems

affecting public safety over the longer term rather than the police,

alone, reacting short term to incidents as they occur.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) elaborate on that definition as follows.

“Community policing is proactive, solution-based and community driven. It

occurs where the police and law-abiding citizens work together to do four

things:

• Prevent crime

• Inter-agency problem solving

• Bring offenders to justice

• Improve the overall quality of life.”

In other words, community policing should not be viewed as an add-on to the

‘proper’ police force. It should be seen in a wider way, as intrinsic to a genuine local

community partnership approach of local Gardaí in an area and it should pervade

the entirety of their work.

Under the current model, the Gardai have established a dedicated group within the

service to act as community police officers. But these officers are the first to be

pulled out if there is a shortage of personnel or a crisis and they are given other

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tasks. And the reality is that they are seen to be less effective as police officers.

They lose part of their status because they are seen as the soft side of policing

rather than the effective side.

With the present Garda strength, there are notionally 400 Gardaí committed to

community policing but the commitment is more apparent than real.

According to the Garda Commissioner, addressing the Oireachtas Justice

Committee –

“I am not sure of the numbers, nor could I state with certainty that 2,000 or

3,000 Gardaí will be devoted full-time to community policing…to devote

between 2,000 and 3,000 Gardaí to full-time community policing would create

major difficulties for me in the current circumstances. To allocated even 2,000

Gardaí for this purpose would mean closing a large number of Garda

stations, which I do not believe people favour.”

We believe that forcing a choice between Garda stations and community policing is

bogus. What is a Garda station except one of several manifestations of policing in

the community?

A new direction for the Garda Síochána

We need two things. First, there has to be a cultural change, right across policing.

What Labour calls for is not any form of lip service to the idea of community policing,

by an under-resourced corps of optional extras who are seen by their colleagues as

little more than social workers. What we want to see is communities actually being

policed.

• We need community police officers who stay working in communities for

significant periods of time, and whose time is not diverted away to other

duties at the drop of a hat, whenever a need arises.

• We need accountability to the community, through local policing forums, with

local Gardaí acting in liaison with local public representatives.

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• We need effective community based sanctions and diversion programmes

and we need better youth facilities.

• We need community policing structures that are developed in conjunction

with local community and youth leaders and are responsive to community

needs.

Second, a community-oriented policing service will only be delivered by a police

service that is accountable to the community it serves. And that accountability must

extend to the very top of our policing structures. In the words of the former Chief

Constable of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, “Policing is too big to be left to the police

themselves”. That is why our commitment to real community policing is clearly and

inextricably linked with our commitment to the establishment of an Independent

Garda Authority.

Real Community Policing

The way in which community policing is at present staffed and resourced suggests

that it is at the margin of police work – a good thing to do if you can spare the

officers and the time to do it, but not the main function of the police.

Partnership is a matter of policing style but it is also an attitude of mind, both for

police officers and for the public. It is at least as much a matter of philosophy as it is

one of method. A commitment to community policing would amount to a profound

shift in Garda thinking and community thinking.

We believe that neighbourhood policing should be at the core of police work, and

that the structure of the police service, the staffing arrangements and the

deployment of resources should be organised accordingly.

We endorse and adopt for this jurisdiction the central recommendation of the Patten

Report –

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We recommend that policing with the community should be the core function

of the police service and the core function of every police station.

This has implications for the structure of the police, for management, for culture and

for training.

As an immediate commitment, that means creating a new rank of Community Garda within the Garda Síochána. This would be a promotional rank, between that of Garda and Sergeant. There would be one Community Garda assigned to each neighbourhood in a Garda District and they would answer to the senior Garda Sergeant in charge at the local station and, through him or her, to an Inspector in charge of community policing at Garda District level

The Community Garda attached to a neighbourhood or rural area would have lead

responsibility for ensuring the policing of that area in accordance with local priorities

and objectives, as determined within the overall policing plan and in consultation

with local community representatives and local policing forum.

Selection and tenure of Community Gardaí should reflect the needs of the

community in terms of skills and commitment.

The Garda District command would be organized in support of the neighbourhood

Garda policing teams, rather than those teams being a minor unit of the District

command. The entire police organisation should be structured so that it supports the

teams working directly with the public.

Turning policy into practice requires structural and operational changes. Working in

partnership with the public and other agencies to identify and solve problems will be

a primary function of Garda Districts. They will empower and support the work of

officers engaged in community consultation and problem solving.

This would radically change the organization and the way it thinks about itself. It

would define the interface between the individual citizen and the local Community

Garda as the prime focus of activity, to which the rest of the organization becomes a

support system.

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Neighbourhood Policing Teams should be empowered to determine their own local priorities and set their own objectives, within the overall Annual Policing Plan and in consultation with community representatives.

But partnership between the police and the community goes well beyond formal

arrangements of this sort. If the transition from philosophy to operational practice is

to be realised, fundamental changes are required in the structure and culture of the

police organisation. Community policing, while a matter of policing style, is also an

attitude of mind, both for police officers and for the public.

To deliver on this approach depends on:

• acceptance and commitment by police officers throughout the organisation

that this is the core function of all policing activity;

• adequate, appropriate and realistic allocation of resources so that policing

can shift from a reactive approach to a proactive, partnership one;

• acceptance, commitment and support of communities for this style of policing

and for the police.

Community accountability

A major objective of community policing is to establish active partnerships between

the police, the community and other relevant bodies. It is only through partnership

that crime, service delivery and police-community relations can be analysed and

appropriate solutions designed and implemented.

These changes will help to ensure development into a community-oriented policing

service, which becomes more accessible and acceptable and therefore more

efficient and effective.

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It is necessary for any real progress to community policing that the regional and

local authority structure of the State and their areas should as far as practicable be

the same as the organisation structures of the Garda Síochána.

At present, the Garda divisions are not coterminous with local government

boundaries. If a chief superintendent could work closely and consistently with one

local authority area manager, it would make operational matters much easier for all

concerned. And policing also requires liaison with health, education and child care

services. But the lack of coterminous boundaries between the functional areas of

the various bodies and service providers presents a serious problem.

At present each of the six Garda Regions, commanded by a Regional Assistant

Commissioner, is divided into Divisions commanded by a Chief Superintendent, and

each Division is then divided into Districts commanded by a Superintendent,

assisted by a number of Inspectors.

The Districts are then divided into sub-districts, each normally the responsibility of a

Sergeant. Each sub-District usually has only one station, the strength of which may

vary from 3 to 100 Gardaí.

In some areas there are ‘sub-stations’ which, for administrative purposes, are

attached to a parent station. One Garda member usually occupies these sub-

stations. There are 703 Garda Stations throughout the country.

The basic command unit is the District, and the Superintendent in charge is known

as the District Officer.

The rationalisation of the Garda organisation structures to align them with local

authority boundaries would greatly simplify the creation and working of joint policing

committees. Garda Districts should be coterminous in area with local authority area

committees.

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But the need for that rationalisation should not delay immediate moves to a

community policing service, in consultation with joint policing committees and local

policing forums.

Local policing forums

Local policing forums should be broadly representative of the community. This is

crucial if the police service is to really reflect local needs and concerns. The main

objective of this partnership should be to determine, through consultation,

community needs and policing priorities, and to promote police accountability,

transparency and effectiveness.

Local policing forums will be a vital element in the success of any move to change the way communities and the police force interact. The main objectives for local policing forums should be:

• to create dialogue between the Garda Síochána, joint policing committees and local communities;

• to seek the opinions of local communities with respect to their views on crime and policing;

• to hold formal meetings of the local policing forum; • to seek solutions, through dialogue and actions, to concerns raised

within an agreed timeframe; • to provide formal feedback through ongoing meetings of local

policing forums; • to ensure mutual accessibility between the Garda Síochána and

local communities; • to enable early identification of problems and to make

recommendations to resolve those problems to joint policing committees;

• to involve other relevant agencies, including Garda programmes and sections, in the process and in the provision of solutions;

• to involve other relevant agencies including Garda programmes and sections in the process and in the provision of solutions;

• to raise awareness in local communities of policing issues and of actions taken to resolve them;

• to enable members of local communities to participate productively in the policing of those communities; and

• to foster Garda accountability to joint policing committees, local communities and the public in general.

Partnerships should be geared towards shared, or common goals, and towards

reducing crime and the fear of crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and improving

the quality of life of communities.

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The pursuit of solutions may take a variety of forms, for example, diversionary

schemes, victim support, crime prevention initiatives, education and enforcement

and youth justice schemes.

The community should also be empowered to identify problems in their areas and

play a part in the solution together with police and other agencies.

Accountability will be realised by creating mechanisms through which the police can

be made answerable for addressing the needs and concerns of the communities

they serve.

Closely linked with accountability must be transparency. If the police are to be held

accountable for all their actions, then, any decision making processes which inform

police actions must also be transparent. If a Garda is tackling a problem, identified

locally, in partnership with the community and other agencies, he or she should be

in a position to account for what can or cannot be done.

Community policing also requires a change in the way police effectiveness is

measured. Performance measures must take into account not only clearance rates,

crime statistics and enforcement quotas, but also community-oriented expectations

and defined objectives. For example, not only the number of arrests made but also

how many households they had contacted, how many community meetings they

had attended, the number of street lights replaced, abandoned cars towed away and

the number of ‘crack’ houses or drug dens boarded up.

Performance evaluation is not only about measuring activity against set objectives.

It is also about accountability – letting police partners, including the community,

know what is being achieved or otherwise. This is particularly important when police

officers are working closely with communities and other voluntary bodies.

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Resource implications

Community policing is not a soft option. It requires hard work, dedication, ownership

and commitment from all ranks and departments within the police service. It also

requires the involvement and support of the community and other groups and

individuals in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Community policing involves much more active partnerships with the community

and a more visible and regular police presence on the streets. And that demands

manpower.

For Northern Ireland’s population, and given a security situation that was

normalizing rather than normal, the Patten Report recommended that “the

approximate size of the police service over the next ten years should be 7,500 full-

time officers”. That represents one police officer per 220 head of population.

By way of comparison, the present Government objective, for a Garda strength of

14,000 serving a population of 4,130,700, yields a ratio of 1:295.

It is important to stress that the Garda Síochána is a national and not a regional

policing service and that it has national security and intelligence functions that are

elsewhere performed by other bodies. Comparisons with either the PSNI or any

other regional police service in the United Kingdom are therefore of limited

usefulness.

Both Garda representative bodies argue strongly that the full-time force should be

increased from 12,439 to 16,500, to account for population growth as well as the

geographical spread of the country.

While ultimately the overall Garda strength is a matter for decision in consultation

with the Garda Authority, which Labour also proposes, the fact of the matter is that

the present target of 14,000 was arrived at before the recent dramatic growth in

population. And it was fixed without any reference to a real commitment to

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community policing or the demands that such a commitment makes on policing

numbers.

And, in any event, it is clear that a real and sustained commitment to visibly

patrolling the beat cannot be met from within the existing Garda strength. Nor could

it be met if the service achieved the target strength of 14,000 or even 15,000.

The case for a substantially enlarged force is overwhelming. Labour believes that

the numbers required to fill the new post of Community Garda should be achieved

by expanding the overall strength of the Garda Síochána rather than diverting

resources from elsewhere or from relying exclusively on the undoubted dividend that

a real commitment to civilianising support staff would provide.

Although a final figure for Garda strength should be one for submission to

Government by the new Garda Authority, we believe a real commitment to

community policing, including creating a new rank of Community Garda and a

programme of extensive training and re-orientation for the purpose, will require a

strength of at least 16,000 members.

The case for a substantially enlarged force is overwhelming. Labour believes that the numbers required to fill the new post of Community Garda should be achieved by expanding the overall strength of the Garda Síochána rather than diverting resources from elsewhere or from relying exclusively on the undoubted dividend that a real commitment to civilianising support staff would provide. Although a final figure for Garda strength should be one for submission to Government by the new Garda Authority, we believe that a real commitment to community policing, including creating a new rank of Community Garda and a programme of extensive training and re-orientation for the purpose, will require a strength of at least 16,000 members.

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An Independent Garda Authority

The community policing approach emphasises ideas of consumer service, flexibility,

consumer feedback and negotiation. To be effective such an approach requires

devolution of power within the police organisation and the decentralisation of police

authority to patrol officers and a far greater emphasis on collaboration between

police and community.

It is clear that the radical re-orientation of the Garda Síochána we are calling for will

not be delivered by either by the Gardaí themselves or by the Department of

Justice, Equality and Law Reform, whether acting in concert or in isolation.

Transparent and accountable community policing, in partnership with the

communities being policed, is not achievable without civilian oversight. The Garda

authorities overseeing themselves cannot provide this for and the Minister and

Department will not do it.

If the community is not formally engaged with, if there is not real and

substantial participation by the community and if the community does not have

an ownership stake in policing, there will be ongoing disjunction between our

policing service and a growing number of citizens.

That is why we repeat our commitment to an independent Garda Authority, representative of civic society, to stand between the Commissioner and his officers, on the one hand, and the Minister and Department, on the other.

Unless power is devolved within the police structures and through civilian

involvement and engagement as well as through oversight of policing, then the

police will remain centralist and very distant from the community.

Under our proposals, legislation will provide for a new Garda Authority, vested with

the function of raising and maintaining the Garda Síochána and of introducing public

accountability into its operations.

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The Government, following consideration of the nominations by an Oireachtas

committee, will appoint members of the Authority. The members will be selected

from a range of different fields – including public administration, business, trade

unions, voluntary organisations, community groups, the legal profession and

seconded representatives of the Garda organisations – with the aim of finding a

group of individuals representative of the community as a whole, equipped with the

expertise both to set policing priorities and to probe and scrutinise different areas of

police performance, from management of resources to the safeguarding of human

rights.

The Garda Commissioner and Deputy and Assistant Commissioners will be

appointed by the Government from a shortlist drawn up by the Authority following a

transparent selection process. The Commissioner will be declared to be

independent in the performance of his or her functions, subject only to the terms of

the legislation.

Legislation will make clear that appointments at these senior levels are open to

applicants from outside the Garda Síochána, including applicants from other police

services.

The Authority will have the function of drawing up rolling multi-annual strategy

statement, which will –

• set objectives and priorities,

• provide indicators for assessing the effectiveness, efficiency and standard of

services,

• outline budgetary requirements, and

• prescribe strategies for the most beneficial use of resources provided.

The draft strategy statement would be submitted by the Minister, with or without any

amendments made by him or her, for approval by the Oireachtas.

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The relevant Oireachtas committee would receive submissions and hold public

hearings prior to approval of the plan.

The Authority will also be responsible for adopting an Annual Policing Plan,

developed by the Garda Commissioner through a process of discussion with the

Authority, for the implementation of the objectives and priorities set out in the

strategy statement.

It will be a statutory requirement that the strategy statement and policing plan spell

out in appropriate detail the steps to be taken to drive forward the community

policing programme, in partnership with local communities and policing committees

and forums.

It will also be stated as a statutory function of the Authority that it coordinates its

work closely with other agencies whose work touches on public safety, public order

and crime prevention, including education, environment, economic development,

housing and health authorities, as well as social services, youth services and the

probation service, and with appropriate non-governmental and community

organisations.

The Minister will retain a specific statutory power to issue written and published

guidance to the Authority and the Commissioner as to the exercise of their

functions. He or she will also have responsibility for fixing the overall number of

Gardaí and the right, by way of specific amendment to the strategy statement where

appropriate, to determine matters such numbers serving in rural areas, distribution

of Garda stations, and so on.

The Minister will be accountable to the Dáil in respect of all these functions, which

will be exercised in an open and transparent manner.

The Authority will be responsible for drawing up and presenting the annual Garda

budget, for negotiation with the Minister. It will then allocate the budget to the

Commissioner and monitor Garda performance against the budget.

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The Commissioner will have full operational responsibility for the exercise of his or

her functions and the activities of the Garda officers and civilian staff under his or

her direction and control.

There will be a substantial strengthening of financial accountability, including a full

costing of the Annual Policing Plan and a strong audit department staffed by experts

in budgeting, financial management and value for money programmes

It will be a function of the Authority to monitor Garda performance against the

Annual Policing Plan and the strategy statement. It will watch crime trends and

patterns, and police performance in public order situations. It will also follow such

things as recruitment patterns and trends, including fair employment and equal

opportunities performance, and training needs. It will assess public satisfaction with

the police service and, in liaison with the Garda Ombudsman Commission, patterns

and trends in complaints.

It will be a statutory function of the Authority to ensure a rigorous programme of

civilianisation of jobs, which do not require Garda powers, training or experience,

exceptions being made only when it can be demonstrated that there is a good

reason for a Garda officer to occupy the position. Priority will be given to creating

opportunities for part time working and job-sharing, both for Garda officers and

civilians, and career breaks will be introduced.

Steps will be taken to improve transparency within the Garda Síochána. The

presumption will be that everything will be available for public scrutiny unless it

is in the public interest – not Garda interest – to hold it back.

The Freedom of Information Act, which has sufficient safeguards relating to national security, crime prevention, detection and prosecution, and so on, will be applied to the Garda Síochána and the Authority.

Conclusion In a democracy like ours, hardworking families and older people expect and are

entitled to live in peaceful, law-abiding communities. Effective and efficient policing

is a basic requirement for that.

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To sustain effective and acceptable policing, the links between people and

communities and the Gardaí are of fundamental importance. The formal and

informal structures that form these bonds must be constantly monitored and

improved.

Our document sets out a framework for ensuring that a new partnership is

established to strengthen the Gardaí and to get police and communities working

together in a common purpose.

For a better quality of life in our communities, Ireland of the 21st century needs these

changes. Labour is committed to making them.

Brendan Howlin TD Labour Party Spokesperson on Justice, Equality and Law Reform June 2006