Catherine Murphy
Question:
1563. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of times that members of An Garda Síochána have used tasers in the course of their work in 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [40576/22]
View answer
I have contacted An Garda Síochána for the information requested by the Deputy, regretfully this information was not available in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 1563 of 26 July 2022 where you sought:
‘The number of times that members of An Garda Síochána have used tasers in the course of their work in 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form.”
As you will recall, I had sought the information you requested from the Garda authorities and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand.
As you will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including operational policing matters. As Minister, I have no direct role.
The table below outlines the number of times that members of An Garda Síochána have used tasers in the course of their duty in 2021 and to-date in 2022.
|
Year
|
Number of times taser discharged
|
|
2021
|
24
|
|
2022*
|
11
|
|
TOTAL
|
35
|
*
As of 1 September 2022
I am informed that An Garda Síochána is in process of building baseline data on all Use of Force instances in 2021 to facilitate greater monitoring capability and reporting of trend information from 2022 onwards.
Indicative data is being published monthly in infographic form on the Garda website from November 2020 onwards for key ‘Use Of Force’ options. I am advised that it is operational data and subject to clarification and change as investigations proceed and the overall data lifecycle process develops. I am further advised that, as such, it is unsuitable for further analysis (such as comparison between months) until the fully validated dataset is published in 2022.
Further information can be found using the below link:
https://garda.ie/en/information-centre/statistics/
