COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF JOINT POLICING COMMITTEE

Friday, November 21, 2008

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: M. Kearns

How are decisions made in terms of prioritising calls that come into the Gardai Station?

REPLY:

All Garda Stations in the Dublin Metropolitan Area have computer terminals linked to the Garda Communications Centre, Harcourt Square.

When a telephone call is received at a Garda Station, the details of the call are entered on an incident template which is then directed to the relevant Dispatcher at the Communications Centre. 

Each Division in the city has a Dispatcher who is responsible for the allocation of calls received to an appropriate resource for attention according to the classification of the call.  This Dispatcher controls all vehicular resources assigned to that Division.

It should also be noted that calls can be dealt with locally where time and resources permit.

Calls received are prioritized according to their perceived urgency using a system which categorises calls from EP – meaning Emergency Priority (Robberies etc) and which require urgent and immediate action – down to 3N meaning category 3 Normal Response and which are not considered as serious and for which sometimes Garda action may not be appropriate. 

However, all calls are attended to according to their categorization and advice given where appropriate.