LIAM O GEIBHEANNAIGH,
A chara, - Has the level of policing on our streets been affected by the increasing feminisation of the Garda Síochána? I think it has, for even in daytime I seldom see a woman garda patrolling city streets on her own.
Once, police were big and strong and male. Not only could they look after themselves, but they were able, individually, to arrest a violent prisoner and deliver him to the care of the station sergeant. Especially big men were chosen for city centre stations - each a "monument of solidarity and the law".
But that has all changed. Recently, the Minister responsible ended a tradition lasting over a century-and-a-half, when he rejected minimum body dimensions for new applicants. He told us that size doesn't matter in his new, politically correct, policing world. So we will have smaller guards and fewer will be male. Presumably, Mr O'Donoghue never had to wrestle an unruly prisoner, even though he is Minister for Justice.
The real question for the public is: "What effect will those decisions have on the level of safety on our streets?" I think it makes them less safe because of a tendency for weaker police personnel to travel in groups and in cars and vans. Where once a single policeman kept a street safe, it will now take two "new" police, even to keep themselves safe. And the corollary is that unless there are two police for a joint patrol, there will be no patrol.
The new Government must follow the logic of this move away from the traditional, big, strong policemen. It should issue guns to all gardaí and stop the pretence that women and small men are equipped to deal with serious violence. Given guns, however, females and smaller male police will be able to patrol singly again, and help keep more city streets safe. - Is mise,
LIAM Ó GÉIBHEANNAIGH,
Áth an Ghainimh,
Co. Áth Cliath