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REPORTS THAT BREATH test figures had been falsified emerged last year – and now a new report from the Policing Authority details how faked checkpoints likely contributed to the inflated numbers.
The report, which was published yesterday, looks at both the breath test and the fixed charge notice/summons scandals (you can read more about the report here). But one part of the report goes into detail about how and why checkpoints were faked.
The checkpoints
Mandatory Intoxicant Testing (MIT) checkpoints are required by legislation to be authorised by a member of Inspector rank or above, and are scheduled to take place during ‘tours of duty’, or patrol shifts.
During the authority’s consultancy meetings across the 28 garda divisions, many members “indicated that the number of checkpoints scheduled during a tour of duty (10-hour patrol shift) could be up to three or four, regardless of time of day”. But not all of these checkpoints took place.
According to the report, the focus of management was on the number of checkpoints undertaken, so there was an expectation at both management and supervisory levels that the MIT checkpoints which were authorised in advance would be carried out during the shift.
And failure to operate a checkpoint would require an explanation.
The authority says that in many cases there were “quite understandable reasons” why checkpoints couldn’t be carried out – like bad weather, or urgent calls, or serious incidents.
But it also says:
The general situation appears to have been that garda members felt that they were under some pressure to report that the number of checkpoints authorised had in fact been conducted, whether or not they actually had.
Impact on breath tests
Underlining how important these falsified checkpoints were, its report says that the falsified breath-test figures “were in effect a by-product of the recording of MIT checkpoints on Pulse”.
This is because while a checkpoint was being recorded on Pulse, the system required a number to be entered in respect of the breath tests conducted – and that number had to be greater than zero, says the report.
The report says that from talking to frontline gardaí and supervisors, it was reported that some members would inflate the number of MIT checkpoints recorded on Pulse and thereby the number of breath tests, in order to be seen to have delivered the number of checkpoints authorised for that shift.
A number of garda members in a busy urban station told the authority that they “were freuqnetly under significant pressure when on patrol, and at any given time might have six or seven backed up calls awaiting their response”.
They said they simply couldn’t manage to perform alll of the checkpoints authorised, due to this pressure.
They had developed a “habit” of “entering erroneous data onto Pulse”, says the report, entering false data in respect of checkpoints not operated.
The authority was also advised that on occasions, “supervisory sergeants would suggest that the numbers be inflated in order to comply with management expectations relating to MIT checkpoints being operated”.
Some garda members – serving and retired – told the authority of cases of “the authorisations… or garda taking advantage of frontline supervision and remaining in the patrol car or in the station rather than conducting the checkpoint”.
This tendency seems to have been particularly prevalent amongst regular uniformed gardaí who would have a range of activities to cover.
While garda health and safety requirements said a minimum of two members should be present at a checkpoint, in some rural areas up to 80% of patrols were undertaken by a single member. Some gardaí said that management would frequently schedule checkpoints knowing they could never be carried out.
Competition and rivalry
According to the report, the pressure “was apparently more implied than explicitly stated”, with no documentation presented in respect of any directives to gardaí.
The pressure was often related to actual performance figures presented at divisional or regional meetings – no division wanted to be ‘bottom of the league’ and “there was often a degree of competition and rivalry between divisions” relating to checkpoints.
The report states that the view of divisional officers at chief superintendent level, and other member local management teams, was that “there was never any such pressure placed upon frontline members and supervisors”.
Indeed, many senior divisional members were of the opinion that they were happy if checkpoints didn’t take place, provided a valid reason was given.
Added to this, the report says that the scheduling of high numbers of checkpoints “was reported by senior members as a deliberate mechanism to ensure that at least some checkpoints could be performed”.
One senior garda member said: “I schedule 10 checkpoints in the hope that three might get done.”
This reinforced the view among those in the senior ranks that performing checkpoints wasn’t to be at the cost of other aspects of operational policing.
To underscore the gap between what senior and operational gardaí believed regarding checkpoints, the report says that some senior gardaí stated that they now schedule “more realistic numbers of checkpoints”.
The obvious implication here is “that the numbers were previously unrealistic”, says the report.
When the authority reviewed a selection of divisional policing plans published between 2009 and 2016, in a number of them there were specific targets relating to both MIT checkpoints and breath tests.
This is at odds with some claims by senior officers that no such targets existed.
The gardaí’s own Modernisation and Renewal Programme 2016 – 2021 states that it was proposed to increase MAT [MIT] checkpoints by 10% each year over the next five years.
The authority said it was surprised that no senior members of the gardaí acknowledged that the programme contains specific targets relating to MIT checkpoints.
Significant pressure
In its assessment, the Policing Authority says:
We believe that there was significant pressure within the organisation to be seen to deliver against targets that were set – whether at divisional level within the annual policing plan, or for a patrol setting out for its tour of duty with an expectation that it would undertake the three MIT checkpoints that it had been authorised to conduct, or at some other level within the organisation…
For some garda members, responding to that pressure entailed deliberate falsification of MIT checkpoint data entered on to Pulse.
The report also details how there was a lack of precision in the recording of figures relating to checkpoints.
“Members report – and call samples reveal – that a ‘guesstimate’ of the number of breath tests recorded was routinely submitted”, says the report.
Gardaí also had to estimate other data for the checkpoint – such as total numbers of vehicles passing through.
Checkpoints were frequently not recorded on Pulse immediately after they were finished. This may have contributed to the lack of precision, says the report.
The authority assessed that there was a strong suggestion “that there was among many garda members a tendency to overestimate, guesstimate, and/or round-up the actual numbers of tests performed at MIT checkpoints, exacerbated by phoning this data in at much later times and for more than one members’ activity”.
The authority said it was highly unlikely in its opinion that there was any connection between the inflation of checkpoint data and personal gain for a garda.
However it said that it is apparent that garda members did not perceive the exact number of breath tests performed as important.
It recommended that the need for precision should be emphasised to all garda members involved in recording and reporting MIT checkpoint data.
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Take the uniformed Gardai out of offices and put civilians in to do office work . Good work ethics come from the top down ….
@Maureen Keogh-Smyth: How exactly would that stop a garda culture of lies indiscipline and borderline corruption?
You are funny cos its worked well in HSE 10:1 civilian to nurses. Lets replicate that and increase funding indefinitely.
If you want to replace someones job with a form and then someone that manages those form returns and then forwards that form to a supervisor of forms, who in turn produces a nice bar chart go ahead and then the person role moves away from there core role to be a reporting role. Many of the areas involved are under civilian control for decades.
Millions given to fight gangland, millions spent on new armed units, and yet innocent people get killed on the roads because of other irresponsible road users that Gardai are being paid to stop. Gardai demanded a pay raise in 2016 and threatened strike at a time when they knew falsification was taking place and had been for years. This just isn’t good enough.
@Rita Gleeson: Gardai did not demand a pay rise, they demanded pay restoration after the FEMPI deductions which saw their wages cut on a number of occasions, rank and file gardai would not have been aware of the scale of the breath test figures as they were only entering figures locally and would not have had access to the cumulative figures for the organisation, indeed from the reports management even when alerted by the medical bureau of the discrepancy between figures and equipment used in breathtaking, did not query this fact, it would appear from the article that the real problem lay in setting unrealistic targets against the resources available to the gardai, the fact that over 80% of rural checkpoints were undertaken by a single garda in breach of their own health and safety regulations points to this fact, the truth is garda numbers and resources were depleted but expectations on delivering an expanded service within an already challenged service is at the root of this debacle.
@Honeybee: threatened strike should be sacked no excuse.
@Honeybee: Whether they had access to the figures being falsified or not is irrelevant – it was still the Gardai that falsified them !! What’s your excuse for that ?
@Rita Gleeson: “Gardai demanded a pay raise in 2016 and threatened strike at a time when they knew falsification was taking place and had been for years.” your own words but now @Honeybee: Whether they had access to the figures being falsified or not is irrelevant, did you read the article ? I think the answer is in the heading” How and why under-pressure gardaí faked checkpoints”, there are no excuses, the fact of the matter which the report revealed was as the headline stated .”The obvious implication here is “that the numbers were previously unrealistic”, says the report, that being the case, how could the gardai deliver if even the Policing Authority recognise the miss match of demands and resources.
@TonyF: You obviously don’t read what I post Tony, I responded to what Rita said and what the Policing Authority said in their statement, this is a systemic failure in accountability in the gardai which should have been identified earlier in the summer of 2014 when garda records and the number of mouth pieces in storage were at odds as pointed out by the medical bureau of road safety, I respond to information , if you read my post , there is nothing incorrect in what I have stated, am I not entitled to an opinion ? , If it differs to yours or Rita’s , is that problematic to you ? by the way I have no connection to the gardai .
@Honeybee:
“he fact that over 80% of rural checkpoints were undertaken by a single garda in breach of their own health and safety regulations points to this fact”
Lets get something clear… Public Health Nurses in Ireland go into homes of drug users and mentally insane every day and don’t even get a smart phone as a method of communication.
If there is to be two cops in cars in rural roads to stop a car, grand…
That means Public Nurses are then much higher educated, riskier job and the have honest reporting… Why are they not paid way much more?
Look at the pay… They are about equal in basic pay but the garda gets overtime too.
Seriously, you couldn’t trust the Gardai to run the corner sweet shop.
It was an overtime scam, pure and simple, that’s the how and why of it.
@Dermot Lane: read the article, 3rd paragraph checkpoints were conducted during regular tours and 3rd last paragraph highly unlikely for personal gain. These checkpoints were scheduled on regular time and this article proves it.
@Paul: If they were down as carrying out these checkpoints in regular time ( some of which never even happened ) then they were claiming overtime for some other duties such as beating up water tax protesters. They couldn’t squeeze all those duties in to regular hours as those figures wouldn’t add up then. Ok boys, who’s turn is it to collect the coffee and doughnuts today? !!
Are Gardi involved in this falsification of breath test responsible for the deaths of innocent road users whos lives could have been saved if gardi would have done there jobs by removing potential killer drunk drivers off our roads.?
@Macus Mc Mahon: In a word, No.
@Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh: in more than a word, directly responsible? No. Indirectly responsible? Quite possible.
@Macus Mc Mahon: there, their
@Mary Murphy: oh Jesus Mary(the annoying one) and Joseph!
@Mary Murphy: shockingly poor punctuation there Mary. Give the phone back to Mammy.
@Macus Mc Mahon: Right… so you’re trying to make out it’s the guards who are at fault for drunk driving deaths. Get a grip. Did you even read the article? They weren’t physically able to undertake the targets set by management because they were already overstretched and under resourced.
@Tom Tom: I think Macus posed a valid question and are Garda management not Gardaí themselves? In setting unrealistic targets were they responsible for putting the Gardaí on the checkpoints under unnecessary pressure which led them to miss catching some drink drivers?
@Joey Navinski: Of course it’s a valid question. After years of falling, the road fatality figures started to rise again when these chancers were busy faking road checkpoints and in some cases putting innocent drivers off the road and failing to catch the drunk drivers and the banned drivers etc.
@Dermot Lane: what innocent drivers were put off the road? You mean the ones who were given a summons instead of a ticket? The ones who committed a road traffic offence but were issued the wrong penalty is more accurate. No innocent ones, incorrectly processed ones yes.
@Tom Tom: Yes Tom, but why did they not threaten to go on strike over that problem then.?
@Eamonn Ó Maoldomhnaigh: in a word maybe
Gardai need to take money out of the equation at all levels of the organisation. Put in Civilians everywhere as bookkeepers, then Gardai might focus on the job they are supposed to be doing instead of controlling things like money and overtime.
Let’s just put a sticky plaster on all of this and bring even tougher alcohol limits in so we can screw the system up even worse.
Almost 2000 people a year are killed on British roads, you won’t get stopped in England on a motorway unless your doing excessive speeding like over 100 mph, never met a check point there in 3 years either, pure joke here the way it’s gone, traffic moving too slow is just as deadly as going too fast as people get impatient and take risks!
@Paul Friday Shannon:
What point are u trying to make?
Maybe it’s time to privatise this job, like the Clampers or the Speed Vans, if Gardai are not up to the job. The Gardai could work with them and do the arrests. No excuses can be made for dishonesty. We trust Gardai to make our roads safe, what about all the victims and their families ? I think they only people that don’t care about this are people who don’t want to get caught.
@Rita Gleeson: Or not set stupid limits that an underfunded and over stressed can not reach?
It’s no excuse for the individual but government has fostered an environment for this to occur
Garda are not responsible for deaths due to drunk driving unless they are the ones doing it and the hoolabaloo is necessary to let us know that something is been done about the codology that went on ,the same as the bank thing
What about all the self-breathalysing that may have taken place too ? ? – Apart from the 2 million elevated by increasing numbers on Pulse, we will never know the extent of the amounts done by self-breathalysing – there have only been two cases reported – doing it this way, Gardai can clock up thousands of readings this way undetected. Fact ! There could have been another million done this way. Time for change !!
We need some party to undertake a reform platform as part of their main aims ,and I can’t see any on the horizon,
Seems to me that if a certain amount of cars were stopped and no body had alcohol on them, Mr Plod would be obliged to say that a certain amount of people were over the limit any way. Now I may be missing out on something here, but in my opinion, the clown that instigated this rule should be hanging from a flagpole somewhere.
@Dermot Lane : Falsification and massaging figures can be used to give a good outward appearance of work being done when it wasn’t – that in turn can be used as an excuse to get more overtime – and at – that’s corruption !!
The only way there might have been fewer road deaths this year is because since this scandal broke on this, Gardai may have been actually put out to do what they were supposed to be doing all along and that might be the reason there was a reduction this year. Think about that. Also in the boom, there was lots of money and high powered cars, and people drank more too I’m sure. Since then we have had more road improvements and many people immigrated too don’t forget. It was not because they Gardai were doing their job.
@Rita Gleeson: And don’t forget the auld fiddleing of statistics as well Rita.
What about the self-breathalysing method !! Only 2 incidents of this reported. By self-breathalysing, millions more could have been clocked up un-detected doing it this way. The 2 million discovered were done by just elevating numbers on Pulse – we will never know the real extent -and Gardai will never admit it – they ony reason they admitted to these were because they were caught and had to admit to them. It’s definitely time for change !!!
I’ve been in Ireland 3 years and do a lot of driving in Kildare and Dublin. I’ve never been breath tested which to me seems crazy if you want to reduce drink driving and make people think twice about driving to a pub etc. Time it was taken seriously. Something’s wrong when such an important role of policing is treated so casually.
Keystone!
Lazy lazy lumps
@Honeybee: Whether they had access to the figures being falsified or not is irrelevant – it was still the Gardai that falsified them !! What’s your excuse for that ?
There seems to be a huge problem with personal responsibility and accountability in the police. I get increased/better training, I get pay restoration, I get poorly equipped, I get poorly supervised yeah all of that and probably more. But dishonesty? lying? corruption? caused by all the above?
@Austin Rock: Just like in private business, it comes from the top
Hi Austin – Couldn’t agree more ! These are the people we expect to be honest and they seem to have no concept at all about the importance of trying to save lives on our roads – any of our families can be affected at any time by dangerous road users – time for a new system to be put in place !!!!
Of Course Gardai are responsible for stopping drink drivers, who can and do can kill and injure fellow passengers, pedestrians and other road users by their irresponsible driving – Of Course Gardai are responsible for God’s sake. Wake up !
@Rita Gleeson:
Blame:
1) the actual drunk driver or
2) the Gardai who by pure coincidence might have been scheduled to do a checkpoint on the exact road at the exact time a drunk driver happened to be passing…..
Stop blaming the wrong people, only one person is to blame for collisions caused by drunk drivers, the drunk driver.
@Rita Gleeson: You are wrong, it is the fault of the drink driver.
@Paul: Paul you sound like a Garda – no more excuses. The Gardai falsified 2 million breathtests and maybe a million more – we will never know and they continue to give excuses for their dishonesty. Face facts the Gardai cannot be trusted to do this job – and people have been killed because the Gardai did not take those dangerous drivers and alocholics off the roads. End of !!
Garda honesty.
Garda integrity
Garda intelligence.
Garda reliability.
Garda accuracy
Garda statistics
Garda taking the proverbial.
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