Gardai move to clarify response procedures to phone calls from the public

Gardai have moved to clarify the situation relating to members of the public phoning local stations for assistance and reporting issues and emergencies following claims of calls going unanswered or being diverted to a national call centre

Responding to the Meath Chronicle who put concerns raised at a public meeting centred on the lack of Garda resources in Meath earlier this week Inspector Ronan Farrelly responded:

"Navan Garda station is one of the pilot stations selected for “CAD2” – which is an update on it's CAD system (CAD=Computer Aided Dispatch).

"Under CAD2, all calls that require a Garda unit to be dispatched will be processed and entered at the relevant Regional Control Room. This will be the case nationally and it should help ensure that calls are processed correctly by trained staff and data quality will be assured.

"So, in essence you can ring 999 or 112 for urgent emergency matters. For other matters, non-urgent, when you ring a Garda Station you will be transferred to the Regional Control Room if a response is required. I accept that this might have confused some people.

At the meeting held in Navan's Newgrange Hotel local business owners and residents voiced their concerns over the lack of resources countywide with many fearing the role of the local garda and community policing was being lost.

Some has suggeste Gardai had lacked 'drive and initiative'.

"Regarding the point made that members might be “lacking in 'interest or drive or initiative' in tackling crime or anti-social behaviour” I would not accept that. We have had some great work done bringing offenders before the courts and getting bail conditions set and this has had a positive effect in many cases. We also have had some good successes this week and last week with persons charged regarding four burglaries in Navan town centre.

"At times, resources are tight and this can impact on response times. If there is a significant delay in responding it is invariably because of the number of calls being dealt with and no reflection on the interest or drive of members. Our Community Policing Team in Navan is slightly depleted with three members allocated, but there is currently an internal completion for a Sergeant to be assigned in charge of the unit and hopefully the strength of the unit can be increased as additional resources are allocated to Navan.