THE top Garda in Dublin has revealed she has introduced extra domestic abuse training for key personnel in the wake of the cancelled 999 calls scandal.
Assistant Commissioner Anne Marie Cagney told Dublin City Council’s Joint Policing Committee yesterday that she was not satisfied that personnel who answered 999 calls from victims of domestic abuse fully understood the issue.
She was speaking after it emerged that more than 3,000 emergency calls in relation to domestic abuse had been cancelled rather than acted upon all over Ireland between 2019 and 2020.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has apologised over the scandal and a review is now underway to see what other calls were cancelled in the same timeframe, amid fears there could be thousands more.
The review includes officers listening to recordings of emergency calls and from that Commissioner Cagney said she was not satisfied with call takers’ understanding of the issue of domestic violence.
She told councillors yesterday: “I was not fully satisfied as to the extent of understanding of persons who take calls from victims and the requirement to ensure that first contact is that full understanding of how you can make such a difference to a victim’s life.
“I have rolled out very, very extensive training programmes to all of our call takers as to how you do that correctly.”
She added: “What I was finding is that they are very good on policy, and they are very
good at doing their job, but did they understand fully how you could get it so wrong by saying the wrong words or using the wrong language?
“We needed to provide that additional support to them, so we have had two very, very extensive training courses which are currently ongoing and are being delivered out to all of the regional control rooms.”
The Commissioner also said she was introducing domestic abuse coordination team for every Garda division in the Dublin region, who would give expert advice and help to victims.
