On the beat

Sir, – Has anyone else noticed, as I have over the years, that whenever the Garda Síochána is subjected to negative publicity in the media (as it has been this week), then its members may be seen out and about in greater numbers than usual? This morning, on a brief visit to town, I saw many Garda cars on patrol, and on the way home, I spotted two of the force with speed guns in a place where I have never, in 30 years, seen them before.

It is as if the superintendents have told them to get out of the stations and remind the civilians, living in an increasingly autocratic state, that they will brook no lip. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT TOWERS,

Monkstown,

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Co Dublin.