Specialist sex crime unit in Cork unable to start new investigations due to shortage of personnel
A specialist unit dealing with sex crimes in Cork city hasn't been able to take on any new investigations since the end of last year because of a shortage of trained personnel.
The Protective Service Unit, which is based in Anglesea Street Garda Station, had a backlog of cases built up when it was manned by 10 gardaí and two sergeants. It lost two gardaí and while it is still operational the unit doesn't have the manpower to allow it to take on new cases.
GRA central executive committee member Detective Garda Padraig Harrington, who is stationed in the Cork City Division, told delegates at their annual conference that a similar unit operating in DMR (Dublin Metropolitan Region) East had 20 gardaí and four sergeants working for it.
He said understaffing in the Cork unit meant that new sex crimes reported in Cork City were now being handled by detectives like himself, “who are not appropriately trained.”
The lack of training and undermanning within sections of the gardaí was a recurring feature of debate at today's conference.
David Buckley, a member of the roads policing unit stationed in Co Louth, told the conference that five years ago a man, unfortunately, died in custody after falling over and splitting his head.
Garda Buckley said he and colleagues did everything they could to save the man, but he later died from the injuries. He said they were “put through the ringer” with a GSOC investigation. But he said the simple fact was gardaí were not getting proper ongoing training in first aid and in several other important aspects of their job.
Garda James Morrisroe, from the Cavan /Monaghan Division said it was “a national scandal” that gardaí were not getting continuous on-the-job training in relation to new legislation rolled out in recent years and maintained “it bordered on corporate neglect".
GRA members also voted unanimously to demand garda management roll-out a dedicated 'wellbeing policy' in the force which would provide sufficient counselling services.
Last year a survey was carried out by a specialist on behalf of the GRA which found that one on six members of the frontline force were exhibiting significant signs of Post Traumatic Street Disorder (PTSD). Mark Rabbitte, a delegate from the Tipperary Garda Division, said there had been an incremental rise in suicides, murders and serious assaults in society in recent years.
He pointed out that gardaí were often the first people to attend such incidents and this was resulting in “an alarming level of psychological trauma” within rank-and-file members of the force.
Garda Rabbitte spoke of what happened to one of his female colleagues who had 12 years' service. He said that after having to deal with the trauma of witnessing a drowning, just 12 months later she was the first garda at the scene after a man deliberately took his life by walking out in front of a lorry.
“That was the straw which broke the camel's back,” he said.
He added she didn't get any support from garda management for a time and she was “left a shell of her former self.”
It took more than seven months before management finally referred her to a psychiatrist. “Why iid it take so long?” he asked.
Conor Staunton, representing gardaí in the Westmeath Division, said the PTSD report conducted by Dr Finian Fallon had been given to management and there had been no acknowledgment from them on it.
He said that as far back as 1993, the Belgian police had introduced measures to deal with stress in the force.
The existing supports are inadequate here. Traumatised gardaí are expected to just get on with it. We have been treated shamefully by garda management in relation to this,” Garda Staunton said.
