Some gardai ‘unproductive’ and ‘disinterested’ in roads policing – report

Some gardai tasked with roads policing duties in Ireland are “unproductive” and appear “demotivated and unconcerned” with doing an effective, professional job, a report has found.

While the independent review of Roads Policing found that a majority of Garda members involved in the work were productive and professional, it highlighted issues with poor productivity and behaviour among a “noticeable” minority.

The Crowe Report said members who were “disinterested” in the job were able to “get away with such behaviour” to the “frustration” of their colleagues, supervisors and managers.

The review by consultancy firm Crowe was commissioned by the Garda amid an increased focus on road safety in Ireland in recent years.

The Government recently introducing new speed laws and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has mandated that frontline gardai dedicate 30 minutes of road policing duties per shift.

The review assessed the effectiveness of the Garda’s Roads Policing Units (RPUs). Its findings are based on visits to RPUs within six Garda divisions in Ireland.

It concluded there is currently a lack of “effective sanctions” for poor performance, with supervisors and managers “typically apprehensive” that any attempt to sanction a garda would create industrial relations problems with the Garda Representative Association (GRA).

The report said the heart of problem appeared to lie in the interpretation of the Garda’s Performance, Accountability and Learning Framework (Palf) – with the policy thought to be inhibiting Garda supervisors and managers from “proactively managing” and evaluating the performance of individual RPU members.

Assistant commissioner roads policing and community engagement Paula Hilman said described the findings as “stark” and said it made for “difficult reading”.

Ms Hilman said the findings of the report is also “devastating” to garda colleagues.

“The calls I have had since the initial findings of the report were published, it’s unsatisfactory. It’s devastating to us. It’s unacceptable,” she said on Thursday.

She said it is also devastating for the families of victims who have been killed on Irish roads and those who have been seriously injured.

“We engage with those organisations who represent or work with people who have lost loved ones, or have been seriously injured. We totally understand how they feel,” she added.

“We will continue with that engagement with all those groups, because, equally, they are supportive of what they know we want to do, but we need to undoubtedly deal with the small minority of individuals and culture that has been identified in the report.”

Deputy commissioner Shawna Coxon said: “It’s completely unacceptable for the member doing it, and it’s completely unacceptable that it hasn’t been identified and dealt with by our supervisors.

“We have new performance regulations as of this year, that is new for An Garda Siochana.

“Many people may not know that, so this is something that we’re looking at across the whole organisation, how to more effectively use those new performance regulations to be able to deal with this behaviour.”

Ms Hilman added: “Our human resources department are also looking right across the Palf policy. There’s two things, the performance regulations that came into effect in April with the new legislation, but also how we’re interpreting that policy.

“Undoubtedly working really closely with HR, the work we need to do to support our supervisors that they feel empowered and equipped to be able to deal with the issues that they are seeing within their teams.”

She said a steering group has also been set up to oversee changes within the force.

An immediate review of the Palf is one of several recommendations made by the reviewers.

They said a more effective reporting and governance structure for RPU may also need to be considered by the Garda.

The report found no evidence of a systematic, organised culture of work avoidance or deliberately poor performance within Roads Policing and also found no evidence of bullying or dominance of RPU members by their colleagues.

However, it said the absence of “effective supervision and management” – caused in “large measure” by the interpretation of the Palf policy – had resulted in a culture of concerning work practices taking root.

The report also highlighted issues with significant numbers of vacancies within RPUs, with numbers down by 40% on 2009.

The review said there also appeared to have been a lack of investment in vehicles and equipment in recent years.