On Thursday morning, a row of gleaming 2025-registered Garda patrol cars sat in front of the Officer’s Club in Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park.
Loaded with technology and painted in the new Roads Policing Unit (RPU) livery, the cars were presumably there for the benefit of press cameras that had come to document the launch of the Crowe report on serious and widespread failings in roads policing.
While the RPU’s ageing vehicle fleet was one of the issues flagged in the report, a much bigger issue is a “noticeable minority” of traffic gardaí seem to have little interest in doing their job.
Some sit in their cars all day, before returning to the station having failed to detect a single road-traffic offence. Others do not want to drive too far from the station for fear they will have to pay for their own lunch or coffee.
RM Block
What’s more, these gardaí made no effort to hide their disdain from the consultants sent from Garda Headquarters specifically to evaluate their work. In effect, the Crowe report found a significant cohort hated their job and didn’t care who knew it.
All of this was taking place under the noses of supervisors and managers who were fully aware of their subordinates’ shortcomings but either could not or would not take any action.
The report was commissioned by Garda Headquarters in 2023 at a time when road deaths were climbing to their highest in a decade, bucking a trend of declining numbers in almost every other EU country.
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On Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon and Assistant Commissioner for Roads Policing Paula Hilman refused to be drawn on whether the RPU’s failings played a role in this increase in road deaths.
Coxon pointed to a decrease in road deaths in the latter half of 2024 following the introduction of new Garda policies.
If we accept good policies save lives, it stands to reason poor policies cost lives. A total of 184 people died on Irish roads in 2023, 29 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic average.
There is plenty of blame to go around. The minority of RPU gardaí who seem to go out of their way to avoid doing their job no doubt bear significant responsibility.
These are gardaí who go through competitions and training courses to get roles in the RPU, only to treat the job with contempt once there. They not only fail the public but have a devastating effect on the morale of the gardaí who do care about their jobs.
Just as much blame must go to the supervisors and managers who, according to the report, “are shying away from proactive management and from confronting poor performance”.
They blame the Garda’s performance, accountability and learning framework, an internal policy that they interpreted as preventing them from monitoring the performance of individual gardaí.
“In effect, this is significantly frustrating the right of management to manage,” the report states.
There is ample blame left over for the more senior ranks, including Hilman, Coxon and Commissioner Drew Harris, who retires in two weeks. Ultimately, they are responsible for ensuring the unit has the resources and policies to do its job effectively.
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RPU numbers are down 40 per cent on 2009, despite a massive increase in the number of cars on the road. Their vehicles are approaching the end of their lifespans and some gardaí are being transferred into the unit without knowing how to drive them.
Harris points out that millions have been invested in the unit in recent years. But it is clear that without a fundamental shift in culture, including empowering managers to discipline work-shy gardaí, the problems outlined in the Crowe report will persist indefinitely.
