Writing in the Garda Review in 1999, Chinedu Onyejelem assessed the measures being taken by the force at the time to adapt to policing a multicultural Ireland
With the growing population of ethnic minorities, the rising birth rate of non-Irish couples and high immigration, and the rise in racist and xenophobic crime, Ireland is undoubtedly evolving into a multicultural society. The force faces a major future problem in maintaining law and order. Can it effectively cope?
Many people, especially members of the force, believe that it is well equipped and better placed than most police organisations around the world to providing a quality policing service in a heterogeneous society.
According to Chief Supt Patrick Cregg of the crime branch at Garda Headquarters, who chaired a recent conference on the subject, policing a multicultural Ireland should not be seen as a problem:
“I would not describe it as a problem but another aspect of delivering a good policing service,” he said. “This is a very natural process and what we’re doing is to provide the best service. I’m confident that we should proceed towards our objectives of ensuring that all residents in Ireland would have a top quality policing service.”
The key to achieving this aim, according to Supt Patrick McGowan of the community relations department, is training. He explains that preparations are being made to establish a comprehensive training package at the Garda College in Templemore to create awareness among members of the force of the special difficulties experienced by foreigners in Ireland.
Hate crimes
The programme, he says, will help members “identify hate crime – crime committed against another human being and motivated by prejudice or some offender bias and also provide guidelines for dealing with victims.
“We are also supporting the Equal Status Bill of 1999. The enactment of this law will provide protection against all forms of racism. This law would be a further back-up for the services which the Garda renders in an evolving multicultural Ireland.”
In the absence of a comprehensive multicultural training programme, Supt McGowan believes that the force has done quite well even though the situation is still in its early stages.
“The Garda has already undertaken social studies at Templemore. There is an ongoing one to two weeks’ mandatory yearly retraining in other US and UK forces and ethnic issues can be raised and dealt with during the programme.”
In April 1999 the Garda organised a conference on “providing a police service in a developing multi-ethnic and multicultural Ireland”. This programme was funded by the EU Commission and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
“The aim of the conference was to ensure that we would provide the best possible model for policing a multiethnic society,” says Chief Supt Cregg.
But in the US, UK, Germany and some other multiethnic societies, policing remains a significant problem, and policemen have also been found guilty of racism. The Stephen Lawrence case in the UK is an example of such.
The conference, whose speakers were drawn from some of these countries, examined how policing there has been carried out, including what went wrong. Major discussions at the conference centred on strategic management, training, and education as well as the actual ‘interface’ between Garda and ethnic communities.
Since the conference, there have been three one-day seminars as a follow-up, and a report based on both the conference and seminars is expected to be sent to both the EU Commission and the Garda Commissioner.
However, the force has no special section dealing with race relations. All gardaí receive general training in this area. The community relations unit deals with race matters, and in local stations there are community Garda officers who link with people from ethnic minorities.
Gardaí Jacqueline O’Shaugh-nessy and Paul Tallon belong to the Mountjoy community policing unit. In a recent discussion with them in the Vincentian Refugee Centre at St Peter’s Church in Phibsborough, they explained that the unit, through its information evenings, has built-up a good relationship with non-Irish nationals in the area. Nowadays people from ethnic minorities are coming forward to report incidents, unlike in the past.
Similar problems
An in-depth analysis of policing in multicultural countries shows that problems in such societies are similar. In Ireland, the US, UK or in Africa, foreigners continue to experience the same isolation, pain and non-acceptance. There are also shared international ideas on what makes a good policing, although the situation differs from country to country.
Some countries are ahead of others in intercultural policing. In the UK, police have lived with this challenge for more than 70 years. In Irish society, the challenge is new and daunting. Before this decade the only ethnic minority encountered by gardaí on a regular basis was the Travelling community.
Allegations of racism on the part of some gardaí have raised questions about the ability of the force to cope with a multicultural society. Irish society is already described as racist; in his speech at the conference, Deputy Commissioner Noel Conroy mentioned “increased incidence of racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism” within society in general as one of the changes that challenge gardaí.
Garda Ian Brennan, stationed at Crumlin and the first coloured Garda officer, does not accept that the organisation is racist. “From my personal experience within the force for 16 years, I don’t think they are and hopefully gardaí would never be,” he said. “Maybe a lot of incidents have happened. This could be due to misunderstanding.”
Negative experiences
Perhaps, but many foreigners are suspicious of police because they may have had very negative experiences with the police forces where they come from.
Nigerian priest Rev Fr Cyril Mbata, a postgraduate student at All Hallows College but also attached to St Peter’s Church, feels that this is an over-simplification of the situation.
“There are some elements of truth in that whatever experiences you had in the past would manifest consciously or unconsciously. However, the perception the society has about foreigners influences the law enforcement agency.
“If society would see them to be equal, non-Irish nationals would relate better with the Garda.”
The challenge for the force is to develop the trust and confidence of all members of society. It will be a long difficult journey but the force does seem to be headed in the right direction.
