The Policing Authority has today published What We Heard 2022, a summary of its engagements nationwide with communities, groups and organisations, which focused on listening to the lived experience of policing within these communities. This summary of engagements does not claim to be representative or scientific, but it does provide useful insights into how and where the policing service is experienced as effective and why. It also outlines when it is not experienced as effective and gives a sense of why that is. It is a useful source of information that informs policing oversight and complements the information and data provided to the Authority by the Garda Síochána and that available through crime data, national surveys and research.

Key themes emerging from today’s report are:

• Safety in the Community;
• Community Policing;
• Drugs and Drug Related Intimidation (DRI);
• Community Policing and Young People;
• Mental Health and Addiction; and
• Domestic Abuse.

Policing Authority Chairperson, Bob Collins, commented on the publication of the report:

“This report is not a litany of allegations or accusations, nor of praise and success. It is a reflection of the lived experience of many people in communities who experience disadvantage and whose sense of safety is not as they, or anybody, would wish it to be. It is also a reflection of how those people report their experiences of engagement with the Garda Síochána and the perceptions of policing that can flow from that. Understanding how safe people feel in their homes and their communities is a crucial element of any Policing Authority’s work.”

What We Heard 2022 was provided to the Garda Commissioner in January and will be discussed during today’s meeting in public of the Policing Authority. The meeting will take place in The Richmond, North Brunswick Street at 3pm. Those wishing to attend in person can register here. The meeting will be live-streamed on our website.

The Authority is grateful for the generosity of time given by the people spoken with, and for the openness with which they discussed their experiences.