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Irish Mirror

National

John Hand

Garda claims roads policing officers are blowing into breathalysers themselves and recording it as a checkpoint

Office Garda the Irish Mirror Drew Harris

A member of the Garda Roads Policing Unit has claimed that officers are blowing into breathalysers themselves and recording it as a checkpoint.

In a letter seen by the Irish Mirror, the serving officer has made a number of bombshell allegations outlining an alleged culture of laziness in the unit.

The garda has told how they were once a productive member, but claims their hard work ethic saw them bullied and intimidated.

They claim that the situation forced them to “fall into line” and are now doing “as little as possible” like their colleagues.

We have learned that the claims have caused “concern” to the Commissioner Drew Harris.

The Garda making them has been a member of a Divisional Roads Policing Unit, previously the Traffic Corps, for a large part of their career.

Their letter, written in recent weeks, says they felt compelled to write to highlight “serious failings” in the Roads Policing Unit.

But they said they are staying anonymous because they did not want to put themselves through the consequences of “speaking up in this organisation”.

The officer raises serious allegations about Garda members being told to carry out drink-driving checkpoints, which were allegedly never done.

They wrote: “If someone just checked the amount of mouthpieces that were being used, it would have been plain to see it was less than the amount we said we were breathalysing.”

The letter further claims that gardai are doing some of the breathalyser tests themselves.

They added: “The way I see my colleagues do MIT checkpoints now has changed slightly now as we have improved devices that records numbers and locations.

“So now we will pull up at a location for a few minutes, sit in the patrol car and blow into the machine ourselves a few times and record this as a checkpoint. Nobody ever checks us.”

They also claim criminals are roaming the roads around the nation with almost nobody around to stop them.

The letter added: “I was pulled aside many times and told in no uncertain terms that I was to stop doing so much work, I was making them look bad.

"I would get cold shoulders in work, notes on/in my locker, some of my uniform/equipment going missing, all to intimidate me into falling into line.

"If I came across a good crime detection or someone with a warrant or a day where I could have a good number of road detections, any of these would mean I was going to be punished."

Although the cop went against it for some time, they eventually "fell into line".

The garda now claims that he tried to do as little as possible, and in a 12-hour shift only try to issue just one or two tickets and try not to get a prisoner.

But he claims that this is the higher end of what their colleagues are doing, who only issue a couple of tickets a month.

The garda wrote: "There are colleagues of mine that have never issued a seatbelt ticket, never arrested a drug driver, some have never tested for drugs, some have never issued a ticket to an unaccompanied driver, they are all kept in roads policing without a word said to them."

Earlier this month, Deputy Commissioner Anne Marie McMahon sent an email — seen by this paper — in which she says she received the garda’s letter from Drew Harris’ office, adding its contents are of “concern” to the Commissioner and “this office”.

The Irish Mirror contacted the Garda Press Office yesterday for comment.

In a reply, it stated: "As this request is received outside of normal office hours this Office is not in a position to make any enquiries on the queries you have raised at this time.

"If you intend to reference you have contacted An Garda Siochana for comment you should also reference that the query was made outside of hours when this office can make reasonable enquiries."

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