Dr. Johnny Connolly:

It is central to it. Something that was very striking emerged throughout the work of the commission. We travelled all around the country to meet gardaí in their stations. They all saw themselves as community gardaí and valuing the role as a priority. They put it as a matter of "serving the community". The problem was that the structures and processes to facilitate placing it at the core of the policing organisation were not in place. Gardaí felt that the role was undervalued and took the view individually that colleagues felt it was undervalued. As such, the objective would to get into a specialist unit. That is the way one would want to go. However, many were happy working in community policing.

If they had a career path, and if they were promoted on the basis of how they engaged with communities, local structures and so on, it would be seen as much more important to the organisation.