The cancellation of 999 calls became headline news last month. We learned that 14 per cent of all calls made to Garda helplines, 6 per cent of which were domestic violence emergency calls, were not forwarded, processed or responded to appropriately.
This was not an exposé. Rather, the gardaí themselves made the information public. They identified a flawed technological infrastructure, alongside patterns of bad practice by individuals, civilians and gardaí, as core causal issues.
While we welcome this transparency, a robust inquiry into the systemic failures of Garda emergency response protocols is absolutely necessary. These are matters for investigation by both the Garda themselves and, independently, by the Policing Authority.
Those cancelled calls erased reliable data. They erased evidence. They erased, yet again, the voices of women trying to speak out
It appears, based on what we know at this stage, that calls were not cancelled as a matter of policy. We are left with two apparent explanations: technological flaws and ‘human error’.
Our first thought goes to those who made those calls. Women living with coercion are smart, they must judge every move, knowing they are most at risk when they expose or leave an abusive relationship. At the first point of contact they were ignored. We hope they had someone else to reach out to, that they knew about their local domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) services.
As many women know, you cannot escape the contrived isolation of coercive control and domestic violence alone. You need support to name what is happening and plan a viable exit, especially with children, on that traumatic journey. The depth and accessibility of these supports rely on cogent policies and coherent rollout at regional and local level.
The ‘tech-flaw’ or ‘human error’ by the Garda directly impacts policy and precisely hinders our capacity to act together to stop DSGBV.
Those cancelled calls erased reliable data. They erased evidence. They erased, yet again, the voices of women trying to speak out. The significance of the loss of this data cannot be overstated. Data drives the collective naming of problems and possibilities. It drives the allocation of resources, and it drives political and administrative attention.
The sort of failure to understand and gather data pertaining to women's lives is a hallmark of patriarchal societies and key to the subordination of women
The fundamental framing of data-gathering, of what is important, of boundary conditions, creates a cascade effect for what will be seen, what will happen and what is possible.
The sort of failure to understand and gather data pertaining to women’s lives displayed by the Garda is a hallmark of patriarchal societies and key to the subordination of women. Testimony, evidence, indeed witnessing itself, have only recently expanded beyond male-defined norms.
Misogynistic remnants persist in the system. The cancellation of Garda helpline emergency calls about DSGBV, then, cannot be reduced to “the computer says ‘no’”.
Gardaí who persistently perceive DSGBV as inevitable, as a nuisance, as chaotic and uncontrollable, perpetuate fatalistic attitudes and practices. ‘Men are violent, women are unreliable’ – stupid tropes of the even more idiotic narratives about the battle of the sexes are maintained. These gardaí are themselves a threat.
Fear and ignorance about sex, gender and sexuality are very dangerous remnants of patriarchal worlds – they serve no one and prevent coherent, systematic social responses.
They also appear to rest on a profound inability to face down bullies. This is a long-standing problem – very long. Women’s clothes, sexuality, housework, mothering, their abuse-driven chaos – all reductions of women – deflect our gaze from the actions of the bully. Whether male or female, we fear violent, controlling men.
It’s easier for a woman not to face the bully, as he tracks her from home, abuses the court, weaponises the children, undermines her work, or engages in toxic triangulation of her family and friends.
Absent or unreliable data, fake news and bullies always seem to be on the same platform; erasing or reversing truth and telling us what is and is not real.
'Gendered' power hierarchies, rules, roles, expectations and entitlements position and maintain our most intimate lives
DSGBV is a vast social problem, it costs the State dearly and wrecks homes and communities across generations. Covid forced us to face it. And we did. During Operation Faoiseamh we know many gardaí felt enabled to do the work they wanted to do.
It bore positive results. Incidents of femicide were low (certainly relative to the UK) and the focused work of divisional protective services units, community gardaí and particular regions and stations were practical and empowering.
But there remain identifiable exceptions, as shown by the cancellation of domestic violence calls. When coupled with outdated siloed criminal and ‘private’ family law systems; the muffling effects of the in-camera rule; and the inability of social workers, educators, medics and rank-and-file gardaí to name and act on what is in front of them, the effect is to silence victims, create a false reality and keep control and violence alive.
Coercive control as a crime is barely understood. When we go through a definition – most of us recognise it in ourselves, in others. Coercive control is systematic, knowing and deeply intimate. It is niche violence of the worst kind. The one you love demands passivity and feels entitled to own you.
In-depth training is absolutely required here. Because, regardless of your sex, gender or sexuality, ‘gendered’ power hierarchies, rules, roles, expectations and entitlements position and maintain our most intimate lives.
Patriarchies, misogyny and sexism stand on the capacity to prevent women from naming their effects. Stop cancelling them.
Mary McDermott is chief executive officer of Safe Ireland