The independent Crowe report into the Gardaí Roads Policing Unit found elements of the service 'unproductive.'

Investigators looked into six divisions and uncovered issues like managers being unwilling to proactively manage their staff, supervisors assigned to road policing but not licensed to drive a road policing vehicle and members only doing checks close to their station.

Conor Gallagher, Crime and Security Correspondent with The Irish Times joined The Pat Kenny Show to help understand the report's findings.

Crowe Report

“When they were out with these Gardaí, the guards had no problem admitting to them that they didn’t care about their work and even went into detail about the efforts they go to avoid doing road policing work,

“They came back with a number of really stark findings, that a minority of road policing Gardaí are unproductive and unconcerned with doing an effective and professional job. 

Mr. Gallagher believes the issue lies in the structure of the Gardaí and that all levels within the ranks are facing issues.

“[Roads Policing Unit] supervisors felt that they were afraid to intervene and that garda policy prevented them from managing their subordinates effectively.

“There is plenty of blame to go around here from the people on the frontlines, to the managers who are failing to implement the oversight policy, to their manager.

"All the way up to the Commissioner Drew Harris, who, at the end of the day, set these policies and allowed these behaviours to persist over a large period of time.

Managers 'afraid to manage'

One of the aspects of the report includes the point that some members of the force were being promoted to the roads policing unit without having adequate qualifications to drive an official road policing vehicle.

“It is one of the many bizarre anomalies identified by the report.

“For example, individual gardaí were allowed to get away with basically just parking up and parking their car out of sight, sitting in their car all day and coming back at the end of the day without having made a single detection.” 

“If anyone else in any other job were to do that, they’d be fired.”

Other issues detailed in the report included gardaí not road policing far from their stations or only pursuing vehicles if they were driving a significant speed over the limit - notably if it was exceeding 20 km over the speed limit.

“They would only go after the really obvious offences.

“Bear in mind, these guards are doing this while these assessors are in the car with them; there's not any shame or any attempt to cover it up—this is basically how they approach the job every day.” 

The chairperson of the Policing and Community Safety Authority - Elaine Byrne - gave her reaction to the Crowe report.

“The vast majority of Gardaí perform their duties to a very high standard; however, some have a blatant disregard for the job and its functions.

Ms. Byrne also says that there appears to be 'fear' among managers to manage performance among their charges.

Matt Carthy TD of Sinn Féin is the Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration,

“While the report found that the majority of Roads Policing Unity members were productive and focused on improving road safety, it does raise serious concerns about a lack of effective supervision and management. These issues have to be addressed urgently," Mr. Carthy said.

Written by Cara McHugh