As political mantras go, the promise to recruit an extra 2,000 gardaí must be one of the most frequently repeated in the past few years. It was one of the central promises made by the current Government during the general election campaign in 2002.
Abandoned shortly afterwards, it is now back in business, with the additional recruitment having being approved by Cabinet in October.
Everyone agrees that more gardaí are needed on the beat, visibly policing our streets and communities. But who decided on the nice, round figure of 2,000? Why not 1,000 or, to be more precise, 1,444? The reality is that at the heart of the 2,000 extra gardaí promise lie both deception and incompetence.
Were the Department of Justice and the Garda to implement the recommendations of their own reports, then the stated need for 2,000 extra gardaí would be immediately reduced to 1,444, simply through efficient management. An internal Garda report, the "2001 Civilianisation Study", identified 556 gardaí who were primarily engaged in non-policing, administrative duties, and whose functions should be taken over by civilians, thus releasing them to patrol the streets and protect the community.
Those not employed on policing duties were identified as five superintendents, nine inspectors, 62 sergeants and 480 gardaí. Roughly half of these work in Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park, with the rest spread across Garda districts throughout the country.
The remarkable aspect of this study is that it made clear there was complete agreement on the figures from all stakeholders, including Garda management and the various representative associations. It identified the enormous benefits to the community of redeploying these gardaí to positions where their expensive training could be put to proper use. It further pointed out that replacing them with civilians, mainly clerical officers, would save the Exchequer over €7 million a year, as the salaries for these grades are considerably lower than for gardaí.
The 2001 study set out a detailed timetable for the proposed "civilianisation" of the force. By last year, there were supposed to be 174 gardaí redeployed to policing duties. The direct effects on the ground of this were assessed for the Dublin region. By this year, had the agreed proposals been implemented, we would have seen an increase in foot patrols across Dublin of over 40 per cent. In west Dublin, so recently the target of intensive Garda operations, foot patrols should by now have increased by 60 per cent. And all this without recruiting a single extra garda!
It is quite startling to discover that none of this is new. The first report to recommend increased civilianisation within the Garda dates back 34 years - the Conroy report in 1970 stated that civilians should carry out all functions within the Garda Síochána that did not require specific police powers.
Since then, between outside consultant studies and internal working groups, no fewer than 16 reports have been produced, all of them recommending the redeployment of gardaí from administrative work to policing duties. It is a damning catalogue of over three decades of political failure in the face of ever-increasing public demand for more police on our streets.
Civilianisation has now become widely implemented in police forces throughout the world. In the UK, it has become the benchmark for the efficient use of police resources. The internal 2001 Garda Study on Civilianisation's examination of a number of forces in Europe showed that best practice indicated civilians make up on average a quarter of police personnel. In Ireland, the figure is 7 per cent.
The study also argued that the release of the 556 gardaí to core police duties would have considerable benefits for internal morale, for the general safety of all officers on the beat, and for the intelligence-gathering functions of the force. It also estimated an annual saving of up to €8 million resulting from an expected drop of 5 per cent in both crime and congestion as a result of the increased Garda presence on the beat.
So, if everyone agrees that civilianisation is not just a good idea, but imperative for a properly functioning modern police force, why has it not happened? The answer seems to be that it is much easier to rant on about the need for additional gardaí than to engage in the painstaking management work which might deliver the same but with much less glamour.
An electoral promise to recruit 2,000 extra gardaí sounds so much more impressive than a commitment to properly manage existing resources. As Minister for Justice Michael McDowell loudly proclaims he will deliver on the promise, the country might be better served were he to sit quietly in his office and work behind the scenes to secure the efficient use of his resources. It would certainly save the State millions of euro, and with the hundreds of gardaí moved from desks and on to the streets, it would undoubtedly by now have had a substantial effect on crime and public safety.