Gannon calls for metropolitan style of policing for Dublin

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon has called for Dublin to introduce a metropolitan style of policing, similar to what is seen in other major European cities.

Gannon represents the Dublin Central constituency, which was the sight of intense rioting on November 23rd.

Gannon has been one of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s strongest critics in the current Dáil term, frequently calling out what he regards as failings and lapses in garda action in Dublin City Centre.

In the wake of the riots, Gannon was the first TD to state he had no confidence in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, stating that he didn’t possess the confidence of rank-and-file members of the gardaí or the general public.

A noted critic of the effectiveness of the garda station on O’Connell Street, Gannon said “you can’t police a city on overtime.”

“The city is awash with guards, but the guards are working on overtime,” he said in an interview with Newstalk.

“You have guards based around O’Connell Street, and rightfully so, but they’re working various different shifts; it’s not actually a consistent presence of guards.”

Gannon said the solution to Dublin’s policing woes lies in Dublin implementing a metropolitan style of policing, akin to the system in place in cities like London.

“What we need is a proper metropolitan style of policing in the city that is ready and reactive,” he said.

“We need a style of policing that actually has guards who are embedded in the city centre area, who understand that the culture of policing in that sort of central environment is different to residential policing – we haven’t really had that.”

In recent weeks, he renewed calls for Dublin to have a directly-elected mayor and called on Government to provide clarity on when Dubliners can expect to vote on the issue.

Gannon said the increase in anti-social behaviour and crime around O’Connell Street is a symptom of a problem that manifested itself on November 23rd.

“This issue is endemic a problem that started going on in the city for about since COVID, and there’s nobody who’s got in front of it,” he said.

In an editorial published in the Irish Mirror in August, Gannon claimed “unconvincing assurances from the Minister for Justice that Dublin is safe will have come as cold comfort to recent victims of several high-profile assaults in the city this summer.”

“No amount of Government spin is going to make Dublin city centre feel any safer. Headline-grabbing press releases and ministerial walkabouts will do little to alter the perception that our once proud capital has become increasingly dangerous,” he wrote at the time.