AN GARDA Síochána needs to consider whether it can still “afford the luxury” of being an unarmed force, the opening session of the annual conference of Garda Representative Association (GRA) was told last night by one of its senior officials.
The association represents 11,000 rank-and-file gardaí in a total force of 14,000 members.
GRA deputy general secretary John Healy said it was with “great regret” that the time had come to consider the routine arming of uniformed gardaí. “But that is the reality of modern Ireland,” he said, on the opening night session of the annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow.
“There is no respect for human life in the lucrative drugs trade and arms trade. Criminals know they will face certain death from others in their trade if they lose a valuable haul of drugs. They are unlikely to give up easily to an unarmed member,” Mr Healy added.
“As we see it, it is only a matter of time before one of our members finds a consignment of drugs and is shot to prevent its seizure.”
Mr Healy described as “a seminal moment in modern Irish policing” the shooting of an unarmed member of the Garda Traffic Corps, Garda Paul Sherlock, during a botched post office robbery in Dublin’s north inner city last year.
He said a “sacrosanct barrier” had been crossed from which there was now “no turning back”.
The only effective deterrent was to increase the number of armed response units available within the Garda.
“It is regrettable to say, but an unarmed uniformed police force is a great luxury for a modern society. But does it make any sense to have armed gardaí sent out to protect unarmed gardaí?”
Currently members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) are deployed to protect unarmed uniformed members manning checkpoints under Operation Anvil, which targets armed gangs.
Mr Healy said that as well as the shooting of Garda Sherlock, shots had been fired from a sniper’s rifle at a Garda patrol car in Limerick.
“We must examine a practical response and a deterrent,” he said.
Delegates will today debate the proposed arming of many uniformed members as part of plans for new regional support units. The units are being established to contain armed incidents pending the arrival at a crime scene of the ERU.
The idea was mooted by the Garda Inspectorate after it reviewed the findings of the Barr tribunal into the shooting dead by gardaí of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co Longford.
However, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has already voiced its concerns at the plans.
The regional support unit proposal would involve uniformed officers changing into plain clothes when an armed incident took place, accessing guns from secure locations and taking up their positions pending the arrival of the ERU.
Mr Healy accepted that the debate on arming more gardaí would be divisive. He personally favoured a more widespread programme of selectively arming some units.
Meanwhile, a member of the Garda’s Firearms Training Unit has expressed concern at the level of training being offered to some 3,400 members of the force who are already licensed to carry firearms.
Garda George Coombes said a gun culture was continuing to emerge in Ireland at a time when firearms training for gardaí “is too short for the challenges they will face”.
He said the training unit had firing ranges but had no facility to tactically train members of the force for scenarios they might face on the streets.
