The report details what the Gardaí are doing well, and what they need to improve on.
The Policing Authority says that more than half of the commitments made by Gardaí in the 2018 Policing Plan were not achieved.
The annual policing plan sets out An Garda Síochána’s commitments to the community regarding the policing service it will deliver.
A total of 63 initiatives were off target in the 2018 Policing Plan, compared to 53 on target.
However, there are certain areas in which An Garda Síochána progressed and excelled. For example, the targets for identifying suspects and victims of online child sexual exploitation were significantly surpassed. The suspect target of 120 was almost doubled to 228.
The amount of burglaries also decreased and 2018 was the lowest year on record for road deaths.
A number of measures targeting organised crime groups were improved upon, including firearms seizures, money laundering investigations and executions of European Arrest Warrants.
However, the Policing Authority also said that they have significant concerns around a number of areas – the detection of crime being a particular area of concern.
The report states that almost all Garda detection targets were missed, that there has been very little progress in tackling hate crime, and that a detection plan was not implemented.
The report also noted that recruitment of Garda staff and Garda reserves has fallen significantly short, as did the redeployment of Garda members to the front.
It also found that An Garda Síochána needs to deliver an improved HR and training strategy. The development of regional services for Cyber Crime and economic crime continues to be under-resourced.
The report stated that “the planning process and culture within the Garda Síochána needs to mature. The Authority has observed improvements over the past three years, and it will be important for this trend to continue”.
Policing Authority Chief Executive, Helen Hall, said: “While the report reveals many challenges, the Authority, in its oversight work during the last three years has observed considerable improvements and it will be important that the momentum behind these positive changes continues.”
The authority insists that a “more rigorous approach to decision making and project approvals” is now needed by Gardaí.
You can read the report in full here.
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