Vehicle pursuit training for gardaí to be expanded next year, says commissioner
By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association
Organisation-wide vehicle pursuit training for Garda members will not happen until the new year, the commissioner has said.
Currently, the “vast majority” of gardaí did not have pursuit training, Justin Kelly said, adding that it had “historically” been limited to “very specialist units”.
Kelly was appearing before the Oireachtas Justice Committee on Tuesday to discuss the misuse of scramblers and e-scooters.
He told the committee he was “committed” to ensuring more gardaí were trained to pursue vehicles and said work had already started on how to deliver this.
But he said, as a result of the EU presidency which runs until the end of December, “the reality of us starting an organisation-wide, very substantive training for all our drivers is not realistic till the new year”.
Kelly said he was “really concerned” about gardaí “on the front line”, with 10 currently before the courts for alleged dangerous driving or careless driving incidents which happened during the course of their duty.
In some of these incidents, he said “nobody has been injured”, yet gardaí have been charged with driving offences.
These incidents are investigated by the Police Ombudsman Fiosrú, who make a recommendation to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who then decides whether charges are brought.
With some of these cases, they'll wind their way through the courts and I think everybody knows how long that takes and the guards’ cases will be dismissed or they'll be acquitted at the end. This impacts them. It impacts their colleagues. Impacts their families
In the majority of cases, he said, Garda members are not suspended from duties.
“With some of these cases, they’ll wind their way through the courts,” he said, “and I think everybody knows how long that takes and the guards’ cases will be dismissed or they’ll be acquitted at the end.”
“This impacts them. It impacts their colleagues. Impacts their families.
“It certainly has a chilling effect on the rest of the organisation.”
We're certainly not looking for an absolute indemnity for guards
He said he had discussed this issue with the justice and transport ministers and looked at systems in other countries.
He said his view was that if a guard’s driving is “outside the pale and outrageous” it should “of course” be “dealt with as everybody else”.
“We’re certainly not looking for an absolute indemnity for guards,” he added.
He said they were looking at a solution where a guard’s driving “will be measured against the standards they’re trained to, not against what’s known as the normal and competent driver standards”.
