SECURITY GUARDS HAVE begun working on Dublin Bus buses today, in a pilot scheme aming to tackle anti-social behaviour. 

“This is a key step in our commitment to making every journey on Dublin Bus a safer journey,” said Dublin Bus CEO Billy Hann. 

Hann told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland programme that the number of anti-social behaviour reported had doubled since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, we’d about 500 incidents of antisocial behavior. In 2023, which was our first full year post pandemic, it was up to over 1000 incidents,” he said.

“So between that data, feedback from employees, feedback from customers, we felt it was a good time to actually launch this initiative.”

The 20-week pilot scheme will see two units of security personnel working on board buses in the capital – one on the north side and one on the south side. 

They will operate daily from 2pm to 2am from Sunday to Thursday and 4pm to 4am, Fridays and Saturdays.

Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of the @dublinbusnews Safer Journeys Team—a new initiative that introduces a visible, approachable security presence on our services. This is a key step in our commitment to making every journey on Dublin Bus a safer journey.

(1/4) pic.twitter.com/lTl1TDh0lp

— Billy Hann (@CEO_DublinBus) October 7, 2024

Hann said the mobile units will have three main functions.

“The first function will be roaming across our bus network, dealing with any anti-social behavior instances that our customers or that our employees are actually experiencing at any given time.

“They’ll also be assisting with our revenue protection unit, with regards to fare evasion. And then the third aspect of their job will be to assist Dublin Bus employees with crowd control, particularly on our nighttime services on Friday and Saturday evenings.”

Asked if the security guards will be directly intervening to stop anti-social behaviour, Hann said: “It’ll be very much a de-escalation type of role.”

“So if there’s any issues with regards to anti-social behavior, their first role will be to de-escalate that situation. But they’ll be standing in the background, being visible, not getting involved in the operation at all until it’s absolutely necessary.”

In a case where attempts at de-escalation fail, “then they’ll use whatever means are necessary, reasonable force to remove that person from the bus”.