Probe into ‘cancelled’ 999 calls examines 49 in Westmeath

In the wake of a public apology last month from Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris to over 2,000 victims of domestic violence who had their emergency calls to gardai cancelled for “invalid” reasons, Chief Supt Fergus Healy has assured members of the Westmeath Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that the situation in Westmeath is “under control.”

The issue of the garda response to 999 calls from domestic violence victims was raised at the July meeting of the JPC yesterday (Monday) by Fine Gael Cllr, Andrew Duncan, who wanted to know if there was a local breakdown of the numbers of people affected in Westmeth.

Chief Supt Fergus Healy said 49 CAD (computer aided dispatch) incidents had been examined in the Westmeath Garda Division and, of these, Gardai had made contact with 34 of the persons concerned. “In the other 15 cases we were unable to make contact for various reasons,” he added.

The Chief Supt pointed out that there is a group dealing with this issue in the Division and that two Sergeants were dealing with it on a full-time basis. “I can tell you it is under control in Westmeath,” he assured JPC members “and I don’t think it is as bad as we originally feared.”

In his apology to the victims of domestic violence on June 24 last, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said his force “did not provide the standard of service required. “ The apology was made following a review which covered the period from January 2019 to the end of October 2020 and focussed specifically on Domestic Violence/Sexual Abuse calls.

The review noted that, while there was an overall cancellation rate for all 999 calls of 14%, or 202,391 calls, 4% of the 53,000 domestic violence calls received during the review period were cancelled for invalid reasons.

Commissioner Harris said last month that An Garda Siochana are in the process of contacting victims of domestic abuse who may have been impacted, and would take “whatever necessary action is required” in terms of supports, prosecutions or referrals to Tusla and other support agencies.

It emerged last week the Esker House Refuge Centre in Athlone – which is the only 24-hour refuge centre for the victims of domestic abuse and their children servicing the entire Midlands region - recorded a 106% increase in calls for support to its Outreach and Court Support services last year compared to 2019.

Such has been the demand for the service that the management team at Esker House are now seeking to acquire two additional properties in Athlone that they can lease on a short-term basis, and they have issued an appeal to anyone who may have a suitable property to urgently make contact with them.

Despite the fact that they put a contingency plan in place at the start of the pandemic to ensure that they could continue to support clients, Esker House was forced to close two of the rooms in their Athlone bungalow due to the reconfiguration of the premises to ensure the safety of service users and staff.

Assistant Manager Linda Tiley said “additional properties had to be found in the community last year in order to provide refuge, but these are no longer available to us, so we are now looking for two additional properties within Athlone to lease for a couple of years.”

Ms Tiley says the on-going coronavirus pandemic continues to have “a dangerous impact” on the lives of women and children across the Midlands who are living with domestic abuse. Over the past year, they have seen an increase of 30% in contacts to their service from outside agencies on behalf of clients, and Linda Tiley said they had adopted “a collaborative approach” with both the local Disrict Court and local Gardai to ensure that women could continue to be provided with “the specialist support required to keep safe.”

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