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GARDAÍ will install starting tomorrow 132 checkpoints across the country on main arterial roads, including highways, to ensure that people comply with Level 3 blocking guidelines.
Traveling tomorrow will be very different from traveling today, “said Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, announcing the measures at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Warned of traffic jams. “We are putting checkpoints on the highways, that is going to slow down traffic,” he said.
While the government has not given officers powers to enforce the guidelines, it suggested they were not needed for now, noting that of the hundreds of thousands of stops made during the latest shutdown, the special powers granted to gardaí were only used 342 times.
“Surveillance is an extension of good citizenship,” he said.
Officers at the stops will focus on ‘the three Es’: engaging, educating and encouraging.
While the commissioner admitted that a motorist will be able to continue, even if the agents stop him and the officers ask him to turn around, he said it would be “a silly choice.”
He said that often the kind of people who do this have “made bad decisions elsewhere” and could be dealt with by other powers.
He said the focus will also continue to be on community policing, as well as dealing with organized crime during the Tier 3 period across the country.
When asked how officers will handle house parties, he noted that there are certain protections for citizens.
“There is a constitutional protection of the home,” he said, but added that the gardaí will have a presence in areas where people are not following the guidelines.
“Having gardaí placed outside your home during a house party will really dampen the mood,” he said.
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