Gardaí ‘ensure effective policing and public safety’

The accusation that the movement of a road traffic policing unit from Delvin represents an “undue focus” on Athlone has been rejected by a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána.

The Westmeath Examiner was approached by a member of the public expressing concerns about the deployment of road traffic policing in the Mullingar Area. They suggested recent changes to operational deployment mean the nearest road traffic policing unit is more than 30km away.

In 2020 the Mullingar Traffic Roads Policing Unit was moved to Moate, while in 2022 the Delvin Roads Policing Unit was established to cover this end of the county.

Earlier this month, officers undertaking roads policing duties out of the Delvin office were moved back to Moate, meaning the closest traffic policing unit is more than 30km from the county town.

The concern of the member of the public who contacted this paper was that there is an “undue focus” on road traffic policing in Athlone, to the detriment of Mullingar.

In a reply to a query from the Examiner on the issue, the Garda Press Office said it “does not comment on the operational deployment of specific units”.

It pointed out that An Garda Síochána allocation of resources, including Roads Policing Units, is managed to “ensure effective policing and public safety” and is kept under constant review by local and senior garda management.

With regard to the location of the relevant unit, they said: “An Garda Síochána confirms that Moate and Dunshaughlin Garda Stations serve as the main operational hubs for Roads Policing Units across Meath Westmeath Garda Division.”

It stated that roads policing duties are “mobile and flexible, with gardaí dispatched based on priority rather than station location”.

It continued: “Traffic operations, focused on speeding, dangerous driving and vehicle compliance, are data-led and informed by collision statistics and community feedback.

“Garda mobility devices, which are provided to every member of An Garda Síochána, contain an array of roads policing apps, which means that Roads Policing Units are not required to return to a garda station for the majority of work carried out in their tour of duty.

“These apps include: FCN (Fixed Charge Notice) App, which allows members of An Garda Síochána to issue FCNs easily, quickly and effectively while on patrol. In 2024 over 159,000 FCNs were issued on mobility devices. This FCN App has made paper based FCNs completely redundant.”

Other apps available to officers include: Vehicle App, Person App, Driving Licence App - which provides information on disqualified drivers, Insurance APP – providing information on uninsured vehicles, GardaSafe App, and the ANPR App – an automated scanning of registration plates of vehicles on a checkpoint or on the roadside providing real-time information on the vehicle.

The Press Office statement concluded: “Many Roads Policing vehicles are also equipped with SMART Roads Policing ICT, including ANPR systems. In addition, all garda members contribute to road safety, including a division-wide commitment to 30 minutes of traffic enforcement per shift.

“An Garda Síochána thanks the public for their continued support and reminds all road users to drive safely and responsibly and report all incidents of dangerous driving.”