Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am informed by the Garda authorities that the statistical information requested by Deputy Murphy on Garda call outs is not readily available and could only be obtained by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of Garda time and resources on examining each individual incident recorded during 2004 and 2005 to identify whether it resulted in an arrest. The Deputy will appreciate that it is to be hoped the great majority of call outs by the Garda will not result in an arrest. Normal policing would not be a feature of society if an arrest were made in every case where a garda encountered a troublemaker.

I am further informed that the recording of an incident on PULSE is not dependent on an arrest being made. A wide variety of incidents is reported to An Garda Síochána, ranging from the extremely serious, such as murder, manslaughter and rape, to the comparatively minor. An incident does not necessarily involve the commission of a crime or offence in respect of which an arrest might be made. It could just be a verbal altercation between neighbours. The recording of an incident will, in the majority of cases, be done by the garda to whom the incident is reported. In October 2004, I announced that I was proceeding with the recruitment of additional gardaí and this is happening, as I indicated to Deputy Jim O'Keeffe.

It is impossible to compile statistics such that one could divide the total number of incidents by the total number of arrests to reach some notion as to the effectiveness of policing. If a member of An Garda Síochána is brought out on a call, it does not necessarily mean an arrestable offence has been committed or that an arrest would be appropriate in the circumstances. In many cases, the perpetrator will have left the scene and, in other cases, the issuing of a verbal warning to a troublemaker will be sufficient to deal with the matter.

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