That disengagement was allowed to happen on a large scale. It was started with the closing of Garda stations, followed by the amalgamation of divisions and districts, transferring personnel from small to larger stations, tying frontline gardaí to computers answering nonsensical queries, and removing district officers from their roles and responsibilities.

Further disengagement with the local gardaí was the transferring of calls from local stations to call centres.

No longer could you call your local station with a query or complaint, now you were being transferred to a call centre in Galway or Dublin where a person you never met, or are never likely to, will answer your query or complaint. All the while you are waiting for Garda assistance from your local station that might be a hundred yards or more down the road from where you live, if you’re lucky.

Failure to listen

On top of all this we saw increasing number of resignations and reduced recruitment, showing a failure of those in charge to listen to the legitimate concerns of garda representative associations, whose members have their ears to the ground, and the legitimate concerns of the citizens of this State, regarding policing and much needed security.

While there are wonderful community police personnel who do Trojan work within communities, the corporate strategy of ticking the proverbial box in order to appease Dáil committees or the Policing Authority has all but removed the very essence of what it is to be a member of An Garda Síochána.

When I first started as a young recruit in Cork City one of the most valuable lessons I learned from my sergeants and tutors was getting to know as many people within your sphere of work or your patrol beat. Be that shopkeepers, postmen, the public, and even members of the criminal fraternity, that knowledge and information that you gained from those interactions was the most valuable tool in your box.

You were also allowed to use discretion, something that is deficient in this current policing model. Common sense played a large part in policing communities but that too, unfortunately, has taken a back seat. Your sources of information and intelligence came from those aforementioned, and many more, when a major incident happened or when something was about to happen.

Now they have so many obstacles put in place regarding information and intelligence gathering that if a garda has information they must go to their covert human intelligence sources (Chis) operative and inform them who imparted that information.

The current Garda model of policing is no longer viable. 

It is a wasted and flawed model thought up by people, some of whom were former police personnel from other countries, who never understood the community model of the Garda.

I have repeated on many occasions that An Garda Síochána is not a corporate business. It is a public service.

While corporate strategies may suit companies and businesses, An Garda Síochána was modelled on community engagement and “on the moral authority as servants of the people”.

• Christy Galligan is a retired garda sergeant.