Is Cocaine Coming to your Town, Here Already? - Open Question to Our Politicians?

Crime Drugs Cocaine, Gangland Killings, No Magic Solutions, Garda the only Bulwark, How Well Prepared?, Some Success, Organisational Tsunami Coming, Flanagan/Harris Plan, Disruption on a Grand Scale, Diversion, Uncosted, Unproven, Every Station in the Country, What is the Rationale?

Right thinking people everywhere condemn outrages and politicians are forced to posit new solutions. Some of these solutions are worthy of consideration others are merely knee-jerk reactions. In my long experience there have only been a number of singular events which dramatically changed the course of history. The introduction of the Criminal Assets Bureau (1996), the launch of the Road Safety Lifesaver campaign (1997) and the use of the Special Criminal Court for Gangland Crime, the Discovery of DNA and the GPS technology are particular examples. All of these initiatives resulted in a qualitative improvement in life in this country. There is no doubt that deep societal causes underlie crime per se but equally so a deep and abiding greed generated by the drugs economy is a major force.

It is appropriate that a wider debate should take place on the societal reasons. However, in the meantime it falls on the Garda Síochána to man the front line in the fight against vicious crime. This is a long unending attritional war. Many successes are encountered but failure is also a companion. The criminal outrages are typified by Regency Hotel attack (2016) and the Hutch Kinahan feud which gave rise to it. The barbaric attack committed on Kevin Lunney (2018). The murder of the young Keane Mulready Woods (2020).

The central cause in most crime is the Drugs Economy although the attack on Kevin Lunney resulted from a different situation. Regrettably though predictably these kinds of crimes will continue or morph into other attacks on society in the future. History teaches us this unforgiving lesson. It is a well-established pattern that just as crime bosses are removed they are replaced by even more vicious thugs and the cycle tends to perpetuate itself. It is now accepted that the plague of cocaine is rampant country wide. Self-evidently without a market there can be no trade, the users of cocaine also bear heavy responsibility.

Each crime event is followed by predictable outrage, often placebo political announcements obviously well-meaning but inevitably redundant because the cycle continues to perpetuate itself.

 The Gardaí have many successes with arrests and convictions and gang members are replaced by others often more vicious and unprincipled than those that went before them. It is a regrettable but inevitable fact that as long as the Drug Menace continues to thrive Law Enforcement will continue to be the primary bulwark against the evil of drug dealing

In these circumstances does it make any sense to embark on a “reorganisation” that will be a destructive, diversionary, time consuming and financially black holed.

In the interim the Gardaí are society’s only protection from the cycle of violence and death.

The most pertinent question is what is their state of preparedness? Objectively there is considerable strain in the system but there is reasonable operational organisational coherence. This is all to change because an organisational tsunami is heading for the Garda Síochána in the shape of a so-called Flanagan/Harris Operating Model otherwise a major Structural Disruption to the Ordinary Policing Service in this country. This is an untried and untested Model. At best it is an unproven untested uncosted nightmare. It is not in accordance with any body of detailed research despite claims to the contrary.

Ordinary policing is provided in this country by or through a network of 535 stations and approximately 14,000 sworn officers. This is supplemented by about 2000 civilian staff. There were 700 stations until the recession forced a reduction in that network. The changes proposed will directly impact 427 Stations through boundary changes. Ninety-Six garda districts will lose their superintendents who are being allocated to nebulous roles.

The complete administration is being shoehorned into 19 Divisional HQs. The capacity for confusion and time wasting in this exercise is immense.

There are 28 Garda Divisions each headed by a chief superintendent the proposal is to reduce that number to 19. This is to be achieved by amalgamating current divisions under the control of one chief superintendent, but it will also increase the physical area of control by 100%. Typical examples are the merging of Tipperary Division with Clare. Similarly, the merging of Louth Division with Cavan/Monaghan.

The chief superintendent based in Drogheda will now have this additional area to cover, as if he had not enough to do already. He will then report to an assistant commissioner based in Galway who will then report to the commissioner in Dublin. There are many more examples of these fantasy structural changes. Also New super Divisions are being created by amalgamating Donegal and Sligo Leitrim, Cork West and Cork North, Meath and Westmeath, Kildare and Laois/Offaly, Wexford and Wicklow, Waterford and Kilkenny Carlow. Where is the demographic case for these Super Divisions. It's a version of the Sykes Picot school of boundary drawing. These look terrific on paper but make absolutely no sense on the ground. The area of responsibility for Chief Superintendents will be doubled and not one extra garda will provided as a consequence.

These proposed changes pose a greater threat to order and stability than the threat from organised crime. The public will be the big losers with the impact being found initially in the country divisions by ultimately in the whole country.

In this election cycle politicians have been extremely reticent to examine the to engage on the detail of these outrageous proposals even though they have been provided with a line by line critique. https://tiny.cc/eoxqiz Don't you think as a prospective TD that you should be informed and asking questions right now?

The Road Safety Authority were not impressed but they are at least looking at the detail, are you?

It views the proposed restructuring as effectively the downgrading of road safety within the policing function as it omits Roads Policing as one of the 4 key focus areas called out at an operational level. It has not been referenced within the new plan at all. The RSA firmly believes that Roads Policing should be given the same prioritisation as the 4 functional areas identified in the plan released today. (August 2019)

The commissioner had already got sanction for a the suppression of 30 Garda posts at the senior level and now its reported that he wishes to have the age of retirement extended for this same cohort. What is going on?

So what will be the impact on me, my family, my home, my village, my town, my city?

How will the Garda Service be improved for me and my family? Please explain?