The annual Garda Div-ersity Consultation Day will be held in Dublin Castle on 22 March 2012. According to a Garda statement ahead of the invite-only event, the objective of the day “is to meet directly and engage with, the representative organisations, personnel and leaders of a wide spectrum of communities within Ireland.”
Those attending “will be given an opportunity to discuss issues affecting their communities and through the use of focus groups, help shape and influence Garda policy, strategy and procedures relating to diverse matters.”
The statement added: “A report outlining the findings of the focus groups will be forwarded to the chairperson of the diversity strategy board.”
This year’s consultation, which will be formally opened by Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, will also include series of ‘information clinics’ hosted by both the Garda and organisations representing diverse communities in the country.
It is hoped that this “will allow for the sharing of information and best practices among the attendees”.
The initiative is one of the main events in the calendar of the Garda Racial, Intercultural and Diversity Office, which organises the event, and the Garda’s community relations and community policing division.
Last year’s consultation day was voted best initiative at the 2011 European Diversity in Policing (Edpol) Leadership Conference.
The event – held at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park on 24 March 2011 – was hosted by Garda Deputy Cmmr Nacie Rice, who maintained that any manifestation of racism, whether inside or outside the organisation, would be fully dealt with.
He said: “If racist or prejudicial incidents are occurring we want to know about it. I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of this type of crime to report it to An Garda Síochána. Please do not think reporting crime is a waste of time.”
Dep Cmmr Rice noted that the information gardaí receive, “no matter how insignificant you may think it is, enables us to focus our resources. Those who commit these crimes can be dealt with if we receive the full support of the communities affected by it.”
According to Cmmr Rice, the public consultation on diversity is a very important process in the work the organisation, and has also helped make gardaí “proactive in harnessing the values and enrichment that diversity can bring”.
Highlighting some of the progress already made in the area, Cmmr Rice said the Garda has embraced ethnic recruitment, with recent Garda College graduates coming from “diverse international backgrounds”.
He urged participants at the conference not to measure the organisation’s diversity performance in the context of nationality or ethnic origin.
However, some immigrants who attended the consultation described the event as “window dressing”.
Speaking with Metro Éireann, one of them – who does not want to be identified – said not allowing people to publicly ask questions outside the group discussions amounted to “brainwashing” and would not help multicultural policing in the future.
For further information, contact diversity@garda.ie
– additional reporting by Chinedu Onyejelem
