Some 999 calls still being cancelled prematurely – Garda watchdog

The problematic cancellation of 999 calls by members of the Garda is more complex and serious than initially believed and has also persisted to a greater extent than initially thought, the Policing Authority has said.

It said it was now also concerned that calls about “very high risk” incidents were not classified as such and were instead recorded as less serious calls and cancelled. The number of times this happened may be “far greater” than previously stated by the Garda.

The latest batch of new problems means an independent review being conducted by Scottish policing expert Derek Penman on behalf of the Policing Authority must now widen its scope and will take much longer.

The authority said it was very concerned about new information that had been supplied to it in the past week by the Garda, some 12 months after the controversy first began. The new information pointed to a more serious and deep-rooted problem than initially believed.

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Some 999 calls were still being cancelled prematurely, despite months of adverse publicity surrounding the issue and the introduction of new measures to halt the practice, which had left some people without a policing response.

The Garda said earlier this year that some of the 999 calls that were cancelled related to domestic violence cases and other incidents that involved allegations of assault and even sexual crimes. While many of the people whose 999 calls were cancelled were still visited by gardaí, others were not.

In a statement on Thursday, the Policing Authority said the Garda had informed it in the past week of “further issues which raise questions about the appropriateness of management and cancellation” of 999 calls. These issues were “of serious concern” to the authority, it said.

“They relate to a number of calls that were cancelled other than through the remedial arrangements that were introduced to resolve the original problem,” it said.

“There is also a far greater number where the appropriateness of their original classification and, in some cases, changes in their classification require detailed examination. It is clear that some of these incidents have been identified as very high risk but the number in this category is still to be determined.”

Public meeting

The authority, which was set up in 2016 as a Garda watchdog agency, said it was now "seeking to understand how these issues have persisted despite the intense focus on this matter since it came to light". It plans to discuss the deepening controversy with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and his senior officers at the next public meeting of the authority on October 28th.

Between the start of 2019 and last October, some 1.4 million calls were made to 999, of which 163,778 were “priority 1” calls. Of those priority 1 calls, some 22,595 were cancelled, or 14 per cent. Among those were just over 3,000 domestic violence calls.

In some cases, no policing response was provided to people who rang 999 and the crimes they were reporting were never recorded.

The failure to create a record of a call means some crimes were not counted and the national crime data was underestimated. However, the impact on the Republic’s crime data is believed to be minimal as very few crimes were completely missed; with no policing response provided and no record of a crime created.

However, in cases involving risk to vulnerable people, the lack of records being created is regarded as very serious. In domestic violence situations, for example, the first calls to 999 by a victim at risk can often act as an early warning sign of an escalating situation in a particular home. However, if no records of these incidents are created, those early warning signs are lost and risk can go undetected.

In reply to queries, the Garda said it “does not comment on public statements” by the Policing Authority.

"An Garda Síochána continues to engage fully with the Policing Authority in providing information, in a timely manner, on the ongoing review into CAD (computer-aided dispatch) incidents/999 calls and will continue to engage and discuss this issue, including at the next scheduled meeting with the Policing Authority."