Almost 150 members of the public have been injured during incidents where gardaí used force during the first half of this year.
Another 132 gardaí were also injured during such incidents, according new use-of-force figures published by Garda Headquarters. For the first time the Garda has published figures detailing the number of injuries sustained in incidents involving Garda use of force, which can include physical force or the use of handcuffs and weapons such as batons, pepper spray and firearms.
In the first six months of 2020, there were 6,452 use-of-force deployments, meaning just under 1 per cent of all incidents responded to by gardaí involved some force being used. During these incidents, a total of 280 people, including members of the public and gardaí, suffered injury.
Over 62 per cent of use-of-force incidents involved a person who had consumed alcohol while about 10 per cent involved people under the influence of drugs. Over three-quarters of use-of-force incidents involved male suspects.
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The need to “effect an arrest” was the most common reason given by gardaí for the use of force, followed by the need to protect a garda.
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The vast majority of use-of-force incidents (6,001) involved the use of handcuffs while the use of weapons was a factor in a far smaller number of cases. Gardaí used their pepper spray 485 times, their batons 126 times and “unarmed restraint” 1,485 times. Some incidents involved more than one type of use of force, the Garda said.
June 2022 saw 1,149 use-of-force incidents, more than three times the number in June 2021 when many Covid-19 measures were still in effect. Dublin South Central is, by far, the Garda division where use of force is most common. It saw 817 use-of-force incidents this year; the next highest was Cork city with 510 incidents.
Gardaí did not use their firearms in the first half of 2022 but used tasers 10 times and, in one incident, deployed a “non-lethal firearm”.
This was during an incident in June, when gardaí received a call from an apparently armed man threatening suicide. A “controlled containment” operation was put in place and the man was confronted by members of the Armed Support Unit (ASU). When he appeared to point his handgun at gardaí, one ASU member fired an “SIR-X round” – a less-than lethal rubber bullet type projectile- from between 15m and 20m away.
“It had an immediate effect, with the suspect instantly dropping to one knee,” the Garda said. This distracted the suspect enough for the ASU to move in an arrest the man. An imitation weapon resembling a Glock handgun was recovered from the scene.
Another incident in June involving armed gardaí saw the deployment of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to a hostage situation when a man was seen bringing a shotgun into a house days shortly after he had been served with a protection order.
Negotiators and armed gardaí attempted to speak to the man for several hours before they made contact. “Instructions were given to the suspect as to how they were to exit the house, which they complied with,” the Garda said. “A shotgun was later recovered at the scene.”
This year has also seen the continued use of so-called spit hoods by gardaí.
The devices, which have been criticised by civil rights groups, were introduced in 2020 “as a temporary measure” during the pandemic to stop aggressive suspects spitting at gardaí during arrest. They saw significant use at first before dropping off as the pandemic progressed. In the first half of 2022, spit hoods were used 12 times.
