Drew Harris: Barriers remain to Garda reform
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said there are considerable obstacles to be overcome to implement key parts of the Government’s four-year policing reform plan.
This includes the establishment of multi-agency crisis intervention teams and the transfer of non-core police responsibilities, such as court prosecutions, to another agency.
Part of the Government’s plan to implement the recommendations of the report of the Policing Commission involves new legislation making it an “obligation” for relevant State agencies — such as Tusla and the HSE — to co-operate with the gardaí.
The demand for more co-operation between Tusla and gardaí was spelled out separately yesterday by the special rapporteur for children, who called for joint specialist teams for child and adult sexual abuse cases.
It follows successive calls for co-operation between gardaí and social and mental health services, including in a report on child sexual abuse by the Garda Inspectorate last February.
The Policing Commission, which reported in September, called for multi-agency crisis intervention teams in each of the 28 garda divisions. But it noted these teams were recommended in 2009 in a Garda-Mental Health Commission report — but never materialised.
Speaking at the launch of the Government’s A Policing Service for the Future report, Mr Harris said frontline gardaí were “increasingly dealing with individuals who are vulnerable”.
He said An Garda Síochána was not the best-placed agency to deal with such people and wanted to direct them to such a service, particularly out of hours.
“We are a 24/7 service and it’s about how other agencies are able to respond alongside us,” he said, adding that setting up such a service was “a complex piece of work”.
“That work is ongoing and we want to see that delivered certainly within the lifetime of the plan.”
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said the Government accepted the commission’s position that policing was not solely the responsibility of the gardaí, but a “whole of government responsibility”.
The report says that a new Policing and Community Safety Bill would be drafted by the end of 2019, which would “place an obligation on relevant state agencies to co-operate” with gardaí in relation to carrying out an extended function of community safety.
The report aims that in 2019 a “roadmap” will be set out regarding multi-disciplinary protocols between the agencies and that implementation of this roadmap would “commence” before the end of the year. It said that by June 2021, national protocols would be in place.
The commissioner said there were “quite considerable issues” regarding the transfer of district court prosecutions to another agency. He said it was a “sizeable undertaking” and the Garda would have to recruit and train people. He saw this happening “over the lifetime” of the plan.
The plan envisages transfer areas to be identified by the end of next year, with the actual reassignment occurring in stages between 2020 and 2022.
It says a changed oversight structure — including the controversial transfer of significant powers (over appointments and strategies) from the Policing Authority to the commissioner and a new Garda board — would be in place by January 2021.
In place by end of 2019 would be: A human rights strategy; a performance management system plan; new industrial relations structures reflecting transfer of control to the commissioner; a wellness strategy; a proposed new discipline system; a local policing model; legislation for body-worn cameras; 2,000 new digital devices for the frontline and the first assessment by the new Strategic Threat Analysis Centre.