Tomorrow’s Garda recruits might progress on merit, not ‘pull’

Recently a young Garda recruit was worrying where she might be stationed when her training ended. She told The Irish Times she did not know what lay ahead.

“It could literally be anywhere,” she said. “You see, I have no pull like some of the others in the class.”

Just weeks into her training she had become acquainted with one of the brutal truths of life inside the Garda Síochána – being sponsored by more senior members can smooth the path ahead for you.

This recruit, unlike others in her class, had no senior officer to pull a few strings and ensure she ended up somewhere she was happy to be. Others in the class already knew, albeit unofficially, where their first posting would be. It would be where they wanted it.

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Just weeks into their lives in blue, some of this year's Templemore class were ahead – all because they had pull.

Fairer

If the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland are implemented, the Garda should become fairer for its young members.

It would also become a better and more advanced police force – more in tune with the police service Irish communities need and want and better able to meet those demands.

For a start, those who would be “ahead” from the early days would be the recruits with college degrees. Under the commission’s plans, graduates would be fast-tracked through the Garda college in Templemore.

They would spend time learning the practicalities of operational policing but then move on while those without degrees linger there longer. The Garda college, it has been argued, is where the creation of an insular Garda culture begins, and from which point outside influence is minimal.

At present, the pull that some young gardaí have initially secures them postings in their Garda stations of their choice.

Community policing

And then a few years into their service that same influence helps secure some of them places in the specialist units they like. Gaining experience in these is the fastest way to win promotion, and those with pull stay ahead in the race.

But under the commission’s proposals, community policing – gardaí in uniforms serving local communities – would be put at the centre of the force.

Those who work the beat would win promotion if they prove successful at building relationships with those communities – for the first time recognising this work and rewarding those good at it with promotion.

That alone is a reform that could prove a game changer for the dynamic inside the Garda; where unglamorous local policing is not looked down on by those who kick-in drug dealers’ doors for a living.

Outside candidates

As they sought to secure promotion to sergeant and then inspector rank, under the commission’s proposals they would be forced to compete with candidates from outside the force. Police officers from other countries and even civilians from Ireland or abroad would be able to apply for sworn officer jobs.

But, again, that would see the strong and deserving candidates succeed and pull become less important.

All of this is, of course, depends on the commission’s recommendations being implemented. Those with pull should be careful not to burn their bridges yet.