The gardaí do a very good job, it's often said. It's a pat politician's response and is often parroted in the media. Often trotted out when a nightclub owner in Donegal has been fitted up or somebody has been shot, "the vast majority of our gardaí do a very good job".

There are a few bad apples in every walk of life of course, but do the gardaí generally actually do a very good job?

It is a piece of conventional wisdom that at the very least should be examined more closely. Motormouth knows a few guards, most of whom are decent people doing an honest day's work like the next man and lets not forget we'd be a lot worse off without them.

The sad truth is though that a lot of guards don't do a very good job at the things we want them to do a good job at like catching criminals and do an exceedingly good job in other areas, like catching people speeding on dual carriageways.

Tommy Tiernan famously described the guard hiding in the bushes with a speed gun as "crouching tiger, hidden guard". It's a joke but it is also part of a wider and growing disrespect for the gardaí that has been of their own making. By "they" I mean the politicians and senior guards who decide how things are done.

Nobody polices the gardaí which is in itself a worry but in all honesty it doesn't take a genius to work out that in traffic at least they are going about things entirely the wrong way. One of the very greatest achievements of this fledgling state was the relationship that had developed between the police and those they policed especially considering the force had to deal with the aftermath of a civil war. It's amazing that they didn't require machine guns, let alone no guns at all.

That good relationship though has slowly been chipped away over the last few years and for what? A few quid from traffic tickets. One guard I know has confided that he is not alone in feeling like a tit hiding in bushes trying to nab people for speeding a little bit on the safest roads in the country. And if you know any guards, next time they give you a lift when they're off duty just see if they don't break the speed limit.

Officialdom will say that this kind of pointless traffic policing is done to engender a broad awareness that the guards are about and they will catch you if you drive dangerously. This is horse manoeuvre of the highest order. Those that are the most dangerous on the roads don't care for a start, they don't have insurance often no licence and quite frequently aren't driving their own cars. The next most dangerous category can been seen rallying around the country lanes of the nation every night where there are never any gaurds, of which they are well aware.

Stopping cars on the South Ring during rush hour looking for tax and insurance achieves only one thing, really pissing people off. Last time I checked it was not part of the guardians of the people's job description to really piss people off. The sad thing is that the more their masters make them do it, the less accommodating and supportive the ordinary motorist will become.

The letter of the law approach is counter-productive. Fairly obviously it has no effect on those who don't respect the law and it engenders disrespect in those that do. Whoever is behind this half-arsed, inflammatory form of traffic policing really should take a bow.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment