AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA are not treating the issue of cancelled domestic violence calls seriously enough, a Clare TD has said.
Information provided by callers was not accurately recorded resulting in Gardaí being sent to wrong locations, an independent report into the cancellation of 999 calls has found. The interim review commissioned by the Policing Authority found that supervision, quality control and procedures for managing people were either not followed, not effective or weak. The report was carried out by former Chief Inspector of Police Scotland Derek Penman.
Over 200,000 emergency calls between 2019 and 2020, 3,000 of which related to domestic violence were improperly cancelled. Of the 3,000, approximately 30 were in Co Clare, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris stated.
Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne (SF) stated, “An Garda Síochána is not taking seriously the cancelled Domestic Violence 999 calls”. She added, “Ever since the news broke that there had been several thousand unanswered domestic violence calls too 999 earlier this year, I have smelt a rat. I feared, and this interim report has confirmed that this is symptomatic of a deeper, structural and systemic issue”.
She flagged that groups such as Clare Haven Services have “been shouting from the rooftops that women are more exposed than ever to domestic abuse”.
Wynne added, “I questioned Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on this issue at Clare’s Joint Policing Committee meeting in October and he was quick to dismiss it by reassuring me that there were ‘less than 30 calls’ originating from Clare. This answer simply isn’t good enough. It’s also noteworthy that Mr. Harris was quick to attribute at least partial blame to the force’s antiquated computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system – but the report rejects this claim”.
