Why the gardai are right to resist plans for a reserve force

That is Michael McDowell really at, with his plan to introduce a Garda Reserve force in Ireland? And why did the majority of the political parties in the Dail support the decision – which is now enshrined in law and awaits only the support of the Gardai to make it a reality?

Thankfully, they are currently resisting. It is a deeply problematic idea, the potential hazards of which are being glossed over with a glibness that is typical of the Minister. We’ll come back to those hazards in a minute – but let’s begin with a stab at analysing what is actually going on here.
Sinn Fein have made considerable ground, in working class communities in particular, by providing – or by threatening to provide – a kind of unofficial reserve law enforcement agency. The Concerned Parents Against Drugs are the most obvious manifestation of this. Sinn Fein members to the fore, a few years ago, they beat to death the hapless Josie Dwyer, a heroin addict who had AIDS, because he was suspected of drug dealing in the vicinity of Dolphin’s Barn in Dublin. But that is just the most high profile example of a policy, which has been pursued much more widely by the party.
One of the promises that Sinn Fein offers to local communities is that the party and its cohorts will see if they can bring a bit of muscle to bear, to stamp out so called anti-social behaviour. They’ll listen to anyone with a complaint, and they’ll see what they can do to sort things out.
With that as background, there is a palpable fear among the establishment political parties that Sinn Fein will make significant gains in the next general election. And if they do it will at least in part be as a result of successfully exploiting the mood of victimhood that exists, sometimes with a degree of validity, on the ground in working class communities – and the attendant attitude that something has to be done.
As far as Fianna Fail, the PDs, Fine Gael and, sadly, both the Labour Party and the Greens are concerned, the Garda Reserve Force is that something. It is intended, most importantly, as a way of cutting the ground from under the Sinn Fein bandwagon. But that doesn’t mean that it will work – except perhaps in crude electoral terms.
So what are the hazards? I’m not often with the Gardai on issues like this, but their opposition to the proposed new force is fully justified. The Minister has been busy referring to the UK, where a special constabulary has been in existence for 150 years, as a model for the force. There are two obvious problems with this.
For a start, is there any reason to believe that the existence of the force has had the effect of reducing the level of crime in the UK? The answer is no – the UK has the highest prison population per capita in Europe and there is nothing to suggest that the crime rate is less than in, for example, France or Germany.
Besides, it is foolhardy to imagine that you can replicate an auxiliary force that has been in place since the 19th century, starting from scratch.
It is also foolhardy for the Minister to think that it will be easier to manage Garda Reserves than it is to manage fully trained Gardai. As we know, there has been a frightening level of abuse by Gardai of the privileged position they hold in Irish society. The astonishing level of corruption within the force in Donegal is simply the most glaring example. If the Department of Justice and Garda management have been incapable of controlling this, then what is the basis for believing that they will be better able to ensure that nothing untoward happens among Garda Reserves? There is none.
One of the dangers is that the Garda Reserve will become a busybodies' charter. Who is likely to want to get involved? People who have nothing better to do. People who need a uniform to bolster their egos. People who have delusions about their status in life. People who are interested in throwing shapes, in bullying and harassing kids, in snooping into other people’s business as a way of getting their kicks.
If these guys hit the streets, the effect will almost certainly be to further alienate already disaffected and potentially volatile youth in disadvantaged areas, who will now have preening amateurs to contend with as well as the cops they already loathe.
Will the Minister take personal responsibility when the irregulars get the shit kicked out of them up a dark alley? Will he take responsibility when one of them runs amok?
The point about members of An Garda Siochana is that they are trained. They are professional. And they are relatively well paid. They can still get things horribly wrong. They have been known to use unnecessary force. But at least there is a real basis for insisting on their accountability.
The whole idea is, in any event, involves scrambled priorities.
Where the Gardai are concerned, the fundamental challenge is to get to the bottom of the malaise within the force and to sort that out. And in relation to crime, there is an even bigger challenge, which is to understand why it happens and the extent to which social and educational disadvantage contributes to it. That's where the focus of government activity should be.
There may well be no panacea. But there is a responsibility on everyone in government to make some discernible effort to get to grips with the causes of crime. I don’t see anyone making even a half-decent stab at that right now.
Instead we get this loony plan to let a bunch of yo-yos dress up in uniform and throw their weight around. What a solution.