The Garda Commissioner has acknowledged that last week’s riots in Coolock, Dublin, were “far from perfect,” as uniformed gardaí without protective gear found themselves on the front lines, reports RTE.
Drew Harris reported to the Policing Authority that last Monday, before the Public Order Unit came, the unarmed gardaí exhibited incredible bravery despite being the targets of abuse and assault.
Dublin police chief Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis characterised the probe as a drawn-out and tedious procedure. Eight cautions for juvenile and adult offenders have been issued, and 26 people have been charged with 46 crimes. 34 people have been taken into custody.
She stated that 59 instances in all, including four attacks on gardaí, criminal damage, arson, and public order offences, are under investigation, reports RTE.
A “very cumbersome manual trawl” is what the Assistant Commissioner called the 3,000 hours of CCTV that ten gardaí have been assigned to watch.
“Ruling some in and some out” is how she put it: 110 hours had been spent watching 68 hours of tape in an attempt to identify suspects and evidence.
Mr. Harris informed the authorities that in order for gardaí to employ software to digitally identify suspects and items, further legislation is required, reports RTE.
“Using gardaí to do this is hugely time consuming,” he added, but it was the only way to accomplish this.
According to Mr. Harris, the 21,000 hours of CCTV that were obtained as part of the investigation into the riots in Dublin’s city centre last November will not be available for the gardaí to see, reports RTE.
He said that threats against gardaí were made on the internet. “Unsavoury remarks concerning specific gardaí were made on the internet,” and they were being looked into.
The Commissioner dismissed complaints that the Public Order Unit wasn’t deployed quickly enough last week.
He said that some might have deployed sooner and were in the area at Coolock Garda Station in less than two hours, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
