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The Garda is dramatically reducing the number of members carrying weapons as it moves towards a model of specialized units that act as the force’s primary firearms response.
The process began last year after a review of the number of armed members was carried out and it was found that more than a quarter (27 percent or 3,778 Gardaí) carried firearms. This was close to the proportion of members who were armed at the height of the riots in the 1980s.
The 2019 review showed that many Gardaí who were assigned a firearms authorization card, which allowed them to carry a weapon, were working in desk jobs or in non-frontline areas such as cybercrime or immigration.
Raised concerns
The Police Authority had already expressed concern about the number of Gardaí carrying firearms, as did the Garda Inspectorate, which in 2018 noted that the time spent on firearms training in the Garda was “exceptionally high for an unarmed police service. ”
A process is currently underway to remove firearms from Gardaí who do not require them, mainly detectives not assigned to the front line service. To date, nearly 1,000 cards have been withdrawn as part of the ongoing process, according to figures obtained by The Irish Times.
There are now 2,776 Gardaí authorized to carry firearms, just under 19 percent of the force. More authorization cards are expected to be withdrawn by the end of the year.
The gradual increase in armed Gardaí came as a result of the expansion in recent years of specialized firearms units, such as the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and the Armed Response Units (ASU). At the same time, more detectives were being appointed who were authorized to carry firearms, but received much less training than their specialist colleagues.
The number of designated detectives increased by a third (34 percent) between 2016 and 2019, from 1,628 to 2,181, according to figures released under Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.
Weapons issued
“The big problem was, do we know how many carry weapons? And if they are, what are they doing with them? ”Said Chief Superintendent Brian Sutton of the Special Operations and Tactics Command, explaining the reasons behind the 2019 review. He said the review found that people who were promoted or assigned to a desk job were still receiving weapons despite that they did not use them. “These were people who would only have their gun when they went to the shooting range to train.”
The goal now is to move towards a common model in UK police forces, where fewer detectives carry guns while armed response is provided almost exclusively by specialized units that have more training.
“We are reducing the number of firearms carriers and providing additional training to people who need to carry them,” said Chief Superintendent Sutton.
Training to expand ASUs was suspended due to Covid-19, but is expected to resume shortly. The goal is to have 378 ASU members operating at 13 centers across the country, including 80 in Dublin, documents show.
The training regime will be modified to include five levels of firearms training, ranging from level 1 for district detectives and drug unit officers to level 5 for the ERU.
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