Alarms being blocked by jamming devices, says Mitchell

BURGLARS ARE using jamming devices to block alarms used in post offices, banks, ATMs and private homes, Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell has claimed.

Security regulations require alarms that operate through phone line with GPS. But the Dublin South TD said the technology “has been overtaken by the ingenuity of the criminal mind”.

Ms Mitchell said the GPS systems were now used in all State buildings including post offices, as well as banks, ATMs, armoured vehicles, other businesses and homes, which also adhered to the State regulations. But the hand-held mobile jamming systems “no bigger than a mobile phone” being used by criminals meant they “can jam the signal and break in, secure in the knowledge that there is no signal going to the local Garda station”.

Ms Mitchell said crime levels had dropped in all areas except burglaries, which were on the increase. And she asked Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to consider allowing an alternative “so there is an officially sanctioned choice”. She highlighted radio technology as an alternative, which was “almost impossible to jam”.

Everybody “is vulnerable by using a system that can now be sabotaged”. If the technology moves on “we have to move with the technology”. Her concern was that the “standard used for securing firearms is the standard being accepted ... by all businesses including State businesses”.

Minister of State Kathleen Lynch, speaking for Mr Shatter, said he had not received any information on this nor had the department received any queries from anyone about such difficulties. The regulations in place were for the securing of firearms but the Garda Commissioner could approve an alternative.

Earlier Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn highlighted the case of a woman whose house was burgled, giving a lift to a garda to investigate the robbery because there was no vehicle available to him. The Donegal North-East TD asked for an urgent review of the impact of cuts on the Garda.