Ireland: Internal surveys shows no frontline gardaí had favourable view of Travellers
Topic
Country/Region
24 August 2020
Not a single frontline gardaí (police officer) questioned for a internal survey had a favourable view of Travellers, almost 75% of those questioned had a negative view of Roma, and significant proportions hold negative views on Indian, Pakistani, Arab and black African people.
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Gardaí have negative view of Travellers, survey finds (Irish Times, link):
"Not a single frontline Garda surveyed on attitudes towards Travellers had a favourable view of the community, according to an internal study of the organisation.
Gardaí also had similarly poor views of the Roma community, with almost 75 per cent of frontline members surveyed expressing poor opinions of its members, according to the study published this year, a copy of which was obtained by The Irish Times.
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Insp McInerney interviewed 182 gardaí from across the organisation, comprising 111 ELOs and 71 frontline gardaí, between 2012 and 2014.
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Garda headquarters said it had enacted numerous initiatives aimed at combatting discrimination since the interviews were carried out. It said it viewed the results of the study in a positive light and said it showed the success of the Garda’s ethnic liaison programme in improving opinions of minorities.
The study shows that gardaí who regularly interact with minorities as part of their work invariably have more positive views of them compared with gardaí on general duties.
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Regarding the Roma community, 73 per cent of frontline gardaí and 43 per cent of ELOs had poor or very poor opinions. Zero frontline gardaí and 4 per cent of ELOs had positive opinions.
Opinions of other ethnic minorities were somewhat better. However, significant proportions of frontline gardaí still had negative views of Indian and Pakistani people (21 per cent), Arabs (30 per cent) and Black African (30 per cent)."
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