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CRIMES ARE SLIPPING through the net, according to the President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), John Parker, who said the public – and businesses in particular – are paying the price for poor policing resources in this country.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference yesterday evening ahead of the association’s annual conference, which begins later this morning, Parker said there had been some good results with large drug seizures recently.
“For every one of those, you can assume that there is equally the same size of shipments of drugs that are slipping the net,” he commented. “And we would say that that is because of the random policing – the spare capacity that we had out there over the last number of years where we had men out on rural roads, increased patrolling [is gone] – the hit and miss factor.”
Under-reporting of crimes
The latest crime figures showed a fall some areas like murder and sexual offences. Parker said some of this is because the force is being more pro-active and “some crime figures will reduce because we’re not there to witness them”.
You know, as they say, if a tree falls in the forest did it really fall?
“A large number of people engage in fights in the street,” he continued. “It disrupts other people but if they don’t ring in, if a guard doesn’t attend and make an arrest it never happened, and we have seen an increase in violent assaults on the street.”
He said “horrific stories” are now emerging in comment threads online of crimes that have not been reported.
Parker also said he would be concerned that businesses are paying the price of for the lack of resourcing with break-ins and vandalism resulting in higher insurance premiums.
It is expected that up to 300 new gardaí may be recruited, once An Garda Síochána makes its way through the 20,000 applications.
However Parker said this is not nearly enough to cover the numbers who have left the force in the last number of years and until real numbers are taken on, communities will suffer.
“When you’re 2,000 employees down, something has to give,” he added.
We’ll be bringing you the latest news from the conference in Killarney over the next couple of days so keep your eyes peeled. You can also follow @michellehtweet for updates throughout the day.
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He deserves a Nobel peace prize.
@brian boru: but in the land of make believe that will never happen….Trump on the other hand is a prime candidate….
@brian boru: and when he was leaking Clinton’s email Trump though he was his hero.
I shocked that the Trump regime would be after him after all the help he gave them.
Ecuador needs to get nukes now. Their embassy in London needs to be careful about any new hires, particularly in the kitchen. The Murderers are on their case
The worlds best investigative journalist, one of the dwindling few, and of course the tyrannical USA wants to kill him.
@methodical2020: indeed, I’m a regular Richie Allen listener too.
@james o reilly: they are going to plug the leak
@methodical2020: I like Ritchie and I enjoy his show, he interviews people mainstream media would not entertain and is not afraid to ask the right questions however is idolisation of David Icke annoys me, while I agree with what a lot of Icke has to say I feel Ritchie can be a bit of a lap dog.
did Trump really take a WikiLeak in a Russian hotel?
@alphanautica: i thought he took a data dump
@Zx5vZulB: Allegedly this is his fave tune – https://youtu.be/Hy8kmNEo1i8
Doesn’t he know that the US government released a leaker called Chelsea Manning and now he wants Assange arrested for the same thing, left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing if you ask me.
‘Merica
didn’t Assange promise to turn himself in if that happened?
@Dave O Keeffe: He promised to go and answer questions if they wanted. I wonder why they’ve not bothered after all this time?
@Linda: strange, they want to question him, he wants to be questioned, what’s the hold up? Oh yeah, he’s pretty much in prison already and at this point America isn’t directly responsible.
@Dave O Keeffe: Hmm no that doesn’t sound quite right. Probably more likely they know he’s done nothing wrong and they’ve nothing to charge him with. But they’re going to try really, really hard to find something!
@Dave O Keeffe:
Yes, but he didn’t believe it actually would happen…
He also said he had a huge amount of material compromising to Russia and said he was going to release it, but we’re still waiting for that too…
There’d be nothing to leak if they werent doing anything wrong
He’ll obviously be going after Hillary Clinton too?
Assange is a joke at this stage. Couldn’t care less about him.
The CIA calling Wikileaks a hostile intelligence agency is hilarious.
Trump probably more worries about what else he has on him / I’d imagine some hookers in a Russian hotel is way down the list
The hypocrisy of the US is astounding. Basically wants to turn every device in the world into a listening hub for their own benefit. Oh but if someone does it to them..
I think this is what you call a tidy up of loose ends.
Assange is a moron. He’s anti American & he has not leaked anything about Russia as there’s a serious threat to his life if he did. Playing a positive role with these leaks would be desirable but being anti American makes him just part of the consensus. Neither inspire any confidence in him.
@Mjhint: American running dog?
@Mjhint: So you didn’t read to the end of the article? The bit where Assange is reported to have professed overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America? And if you did, what – in your opinion – makes him a liar?
Go Trump! Choo-choo!
Very ungreatfulf of Trump to do this…..If it wasn’t for Assange Trump would not be president now….
@John003: yes.. but he has no use for him now
@John003: I agree with both you & Fergal..
I don’t like snake oil salesmen like tRump who only wanted to enrich himself and his ilk further…
Just use a cruise missle – sure what does it matter if a few knobs get in the way they still get their man!
Compromising someones political ambitions one thing but compromising national security is a far more serious matter. Democrats as usual have their priorities in reverse.
Are they stupid as ALL the leaks are coming from within the US?
If they were acting proper and not as a business and as a friend to businesses then there would be no leaks, all the leaks prove is how corrupt the US government are???
have your say