AN internal Garda review of thousands of 999 domestic violence calls that were either cancelled or ignored will find that gardai in the Limerick Division responded to all such calls, but may not have updated the official records to illustrate this, an informed source has claimed.
A total of two hundred and sixty-five 999 calls, made to gardai in the Limerick Division, have been reviewed locally, this reporter has learned.
According to the source, a local review of flagged 999 calls in Limerick, has found that gardai did not ignore victims who made sought immediate help, but that gardai responding to 999 calls may not have been updated the system to illustrate this in a timely fashion.
However, this may still have had implications for some victims, mostly women and children, in terms of timely referrals to child and family welfare groups.
“We have no complaints (arising) from the Limerick Division. There was initially 265 cases reviewed and that was whittled down to 140, because there was a number of duplicates, and nearly everyone of them had members attend (the call) regardless of the status of the call.”
“The next stage is this goes to (garda headquarters) and will be part of the formulation of all of the reports, but there is no complaint in Limerick.”
“We need to the see why these cases were flagged. It appears it would have nothing to do with calling to (the victim), but it would have everything to do as regards the administrative process that we have internally.”
“The call would be on the system and it is then up to the attending garda to update the system, but in every domestic violence incidence there is a call-back that must be completed in seven days, and that would have happened in Limerick, but the garda might not have updated the investigation on it, so it comes back in the system as a (red) flag, that this isn’t complete.”
These cases were completed, it just wasn’t updated on an internal garda system, the source reiterated.
“To be fair to gardai, members have a duty and an obligation to the public and I would find it very hard to believe that any member would cancel a 999 call, which I don’t believe they did, in Limerick, or anywhere else.”
“I’m very confident they didn’t in Limerick, and I’m awaiting this report with interest. I just can’t believe a garda anywhere in the country would not act on a domestic violence call, or knock it off. We are slack at times but were not that slack.”
This Wednesday the Garda Representative Association, which represents rank and file gardai, stated “it fully understands the public’s concerns regarding the Commissioner’s disclosure of cancelled 999 calls and welcome his apology should these allegations prove justified”.
The GRA President, Frank Thornton, who is stationed at Roxboro Road garda station in Limerick, added: “Our members take domestic violence incidents and calls extremely seriously and have assured us that they always take 100% care to deal with them as quickly, sensitively and as appropriately as possible.”
“Such allegations from the Commissioner of unprofessional conduct within our ranks has cast an entire shadow over our hardworking and trusted membership.”
Mr Thornton said the GRA “are taken aback by the number of calls being investigated” nationally, and he welcomed “detailed scrutiny of all individual cases concerned”.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet had sight of any such report, and we now demand full disclosure and clarity of exactly how many calls are under investigation, the nature of these calls and where the failures occurred,” he said.
“We also need a full investigation into any faults in our current systems and procedures to ensure all emergency calls are handled with due care and professionalism.”
“For many years we have called for greater planning and accountability regarding the training of our members, an area which we know is consistently underfunded, undervalued and under-resourced.”
