merrion street

• New Policing Authority to play key roles in implementation of Garda reforms
• Government commits to upgrading Garda technology to bring outdated paper based practices into the 21st century
• CSO to carry-out analysis of recording, classification and reclassification of crime on Garda Pulse system; and to chair new Expert Panel to draw up new National Standards for Crime Counting
• Minister welcomes Garda plans to establish new Data Quality Team and to establish Victim Liaison Office in every Garda division
• Minister commits to new legislation to allow implementation of EU Victims Directive and ratification of Istanbul Convention on domestic violence

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald today published the report of the Garda Inspectorate on Crime Investigation. The Minister thanked the Garda Inspectorate for their work on this comprehensive report.

The Minister said:

The Inspectorate report raises serious concerns and represents a highly challenging analysis of Garda processes and systems,
highlights serious systemic weaknesses; and will inform my ongoing reform of policing in Ireland.

In its report, the Inspectorate has found a police service in need of modernisation of its crime investigation operational and support
infrastructure. The report identifies the absence of up-to-date dispatch technology as well as deficiencies in practices, supervision and governance
relating to the recording, classification and investigation of crime. The report examines the current system for counting and categorising recorded
crime and the level of recorded detections for those crimes; and highlights concerns in this area.

The Minister added that:

While rightly unsparing in its criticisms in relation to identified inadequacies, it also recognises that the systemic
challenges and deficiencies identified during the inspection are not unique to An Garda Síochána but are common right throughout the world in policing
services.

For more information, read the full press release here.