Garda Questions

TheNog

AntiRip wrote: »

Can somebody tell me whats the shift rota schedule? Is it different from station to station, city, town or rural?

The country roster can be found here Untitled.jpg. Hope this is clear to ye. The City roster I cannot help you with at all.

TheNog

blue2b wrote: »

does new recruits find it tough to get used to the night work. is it a sleepy slow shift. or does it fly by. obviously if your out on the beat it flies but im talkin about station work

It can be boring but only if you make it so. At the beginning you will not have many files to do but you still have the diary and if you leave it till you are working a night as member in charge then you are guaranteed the night will fly.Plus you will be using PULSE non stop to get to know the local heads, travelling criminals, the usual public order offenders and not forgetting the dealers too. There is always something to do even if you are working in a small country district HQ.

After a couple of months you will have of the above plus your files and court appearances so you are very busy indeed. No time to be bored.

TheNog

punchestown wrote: »

Anyone down in the college know if there is any truth in the story regarding one student failing first aid/number of other subjects but being given exemption due to the fact that he is Chinese as there is pressure on the department to bring through all qualified applicants that are not irish nationality?

I'm thinking Chinese whispers :pac:

tbh the college is rife with them

TheNog

keeponrunnin wrote: »

hey all

im in my 2nd campaign for psni and this is my 1st for an garda siochána.

Does anyone know of anyone else who has managed travelling from the north to templemore each weekend, or anyone who has managed living in the north and working in the south? i've 2 young children and want to spend as much time as i can with them.

is there also a thread for life at templemore?there's an excellent breakdown of life at garnerville, just wondering if i could make use of something for templemore.

I know how demanding police work is, and that i'll not be "off duty" ever really, but i want to be in a position geographically, financially and emotionally that will afford me some semblance of family life.

hope you can help

Travelling from the north to college is not too bad. I travelled from Cavan, others did 4-5 hrs from Donegal.

With regards to station, try to get somewhere close to home. You may have a Welfare claim there if you have children where HR can place you as near to your home as possible but it has to be at least 20 miles from your homeplace.

I was stationed in Drogheda for Phase 2 will living in Cavan. It was an hour and 20 minutes drive each way. The hardest part was the change over such as :

finish nights at 6am
get home at 7.15 or so
get kids up and get them to school
into bed at 9.30
back up at 12
gone at 12.30 for work at 2pm

It does take a toll on you but I knew it was for only 6 months. Now I'm at a different station that is 50 minutes from home. The change-over are still a bitch though.

Also there is a possibility that you may have to work on. Example me and a colleague arrested a fella for burglary at 5.30am. We Section 4'd him for questioning which resulted in us staying there till 1 pm. We had enough time to get a sandwich and begin our shift at 2pm. So basically we worked a full 24hrs but it is rare. The sergeants don;t want us to work more than a double shift but due to limited resources we had to. Honestly we were on such a buzz we didn;t feel tired till much later though!!!!!!!!!!

kerry4sam

TheNog wrote: »

The country roster can be found here Untitled.jpg. Hope this is clear to ye. The City roster I cannot help you with at all.

are you in the unit for just the 4weeks then move onto the next unit ie. A(4weeks) --> B(4weeks) etc ? ... How do they split up the guards in the stations into the units?

TheNog

You are placed on one unit such as Unit A,B,C or D and you stay there. Each member is assigned to a unit which needs beefing up.

Each roster is 4 weeks long and when a roster is finished we go back to the first week again. If you look again at the attachment I put in and for example, I'm on Unit B. The four weeks displayed for Unit B is a full roster which we completed just last Sunday on Week 4 of the pic so I just started a new roster on early Monday last, worked early Tuesday and now I'm resting today and tomorrow and back in work on Friday night.

ojewriej

I have kind of related question: - what does "you are never of duty" mean exactly? Are you often called to come to work on your rest days for example? Do you have some kind of "on call system"? I mean, what if they'll call you to come in, and you are after having few drinks?

pvt.joker

ojewriej wrote: »

I have kind of realted question: - what does "you are never of duty"mean exactly? Are you often called to come to work on your rest days for example? Do you have sokme kind of "on call system"? I mean, what if they'll call you to come in, and you are after having few drinks?

good question. Im wondering along the same lines. When you're on a rest day or off duty for example, are you still a guard, as in are you still expected to react if you see something illegal and approach them over it?

TheNog

ojewriej wrote: »

I have kind of related question: - what does "you are never of duty" mean exactly? Are you often called to come to work on your rest days for example? Do you have some kind of "on call system"? I mean, what if they'll call you to come in, and you are after having few drinks?

pvt.joker wrote: »

good question. Im wondering along the same lines. When you're on a rest day or off duty for example, are you still a guard, as in are you still expected to react if you see something illegal and approach them over it?

It is a good question and one that is often said but rarely understood.

When they say you are never off duty pretty much means if you are off duty and see something happen you should intervene keeping in mind that you must put your safety and those around first. An example of this would be say if you saw a person being mugged or a place being robbed or a traffic incident then you should at least report it and possibly react but again thinking of safety. I have had incidents such as dangerous driving, once saw a fella checking out houses and one fella selling tools from the back of a van.

Another aspect of it is when on duty you see certain suspicous things like a bogey looking fella hangng outside the credit union or a fella possibly selling drugs. These are things that most normal people would not notice at all but guards do. Unfortuantely when your off duty you are looking for these suspicous characters as well therefore the quote "you are never off duty" applies

You can get a phone call to come into work on OT but this job is like any other in that you can decline.

pvt.joker

Thanks for the answers.

Is it true that a lot of guards work loads of OT to boost pay? Is OT readily available or would it be rare to work it?
Is it available easily if you want it?

ojewriej

pvt.joker wrote: »

Thanks for the answers.

Is it true that a lot of guards work loads of OT to boost pay? Is OT readily available or would it be rare to work it?
Is it available easily if you want it?

And what if you'd rather not do it foir some reason, like family etc. Would that be frowned upon?

TheNog

pvt.joker wrote: »

Thanks for the answers.

Is it true that a lot of guards work loads of OT to boost pay? Is OT readily available or would it be rare to work it?
Is it available easily if you want it?

Some do work OT and some don't. Its more a matter of preference. As I already said there will be times that OT is unavoidable but most OT is voluntary. OT can be got through working on Anvil checkpoints but there is a clampdown on OT at the moment at district where Anvil has either a divisional/national budget

ojewriej wrote: »

And what if you'd rather not do it foir some reason, like family etc. Would that be frowned upon?

Again if your children are with you, then you are putting their safety first however you would be expected to report the crime and give a statement and evidence if the culprits were apprehended.

kerry4sam

TheNog wrote: »

You are placed on one unit such as Unit A,B,C or D and you stay there. Each member is assigned to a unit which needs beefing up.

Each roster is 4 weeks long and when a roster is finished we go back to the first week again. If you look again at the attachment I put in and for example, I'm on Unit B. The four weeks displayed for Unit B is a full roster which we completed just last Sunday on Week 4 of the pic so I just started a new roster on early Monday last, worked early Tuesday and now I'm resting today and tomorrow and back in work on Friday night.

Cheers man at least it's good in the way you can get into some kind of routine if you're doing the same shifts instead of mixing between units ...
I was looking at your earlier post where said "finish nights at 6am
get home at 7.15 or so ... get kids up and get them to school
into bed at 9.30 ... back up at 12 ... gone at 12.30 for work at 2pm"

Their is some credit due there and i'm sure not many people would realise what guards go through on a daily basis outside of work.

TheNog

kerry4sam wrote: »

i'm sure not many people would realise what guards go through on a daily basis outside of work.

thats true not many people do realise what we do on or off duty but yet people critisise us when we appear to them to be doing nothing. That's why I believe it is good to have forums like Boards to tell/show people some of the things we do instead of shrouding the whole job in secrecy.

angelfire9

kerry4sam wrote: »

Cheers man at least it's good in the way you can get into some kind of routine if you're doing the same shifts instead of mixing between units ...
I was looking at your earlier post where said "finish nights at 6am
get home at 7.15 or so ... get kids up and get them to school
into bed at 9.30 ... back up at 12 ... gone at 12.30 for work at 2pm"

It's also handy for planning holidays and/or mid week breaks or even DIY around the house breaks cos i know weeks in advance when the hubby is off!

kerry4sam wrote: »

Their is some credit due there and i'm sure not many people would realise what guards go through on a daily basis outside of work.

This is very true anyone thinking of joining up should also think of how it will affect their personal lives & families, i knew having grown up with it what i was getting into with the OH (having said that i always SWORE i would NEVER even date a cop when i was younger and i ended up married to one!

Dr_MaSoN

Question with regards to hair length.

Since im traveling around europe in july i am getting my hair cut pretty tight and id preferably like to keep it like this for a while, just wondering is this ok down in templemor/ the garda in general?

TheNog

Dr_MaSoN wrote: »

Question with regards to hair length.

Since im traveling around europe in july i am getting my hair cut pretty tight and id preferably like to keep it like this for a while, just wondering is this ok down in templemor/ the garda in general?

Yes the tighter the hair cut the better. The regulations for the males is short hair (again tighter the better) which is above the collar of the shirt. For the women it must be in a bun with no strands of hair. Everything must be tight.

The reason for this is mostly tidiness in the college but I reckon is also to prevent a member being pulled around by the hair while on duty.

I have of and I also know female members who became very relaxed with their hairstyles and let it grow too long to keep up tight and suffered severe consequences for it. One member was left with a fairly big bald patch on her head while she was stationed in Louth/Meath.

Dr_MaSoN

sorry if i was misleading but i mean basically number 2/1 blades or Skinhead....

pvt.joker

Lol, Im picturing a scene from Full Metal Jacket, we all line up on day one and they give us all a blade 0

TheNog

Most went for a blade 1 or 2 all over, some even went for a total shaved look. Others went for a 1 or 2 back and sides and tidied on top

pvt.joker

TheNog wrote: »

Most went for a blade 1 or 2 all over, some even went for a total shaved look. Others went for a 1 or 2 back and sides and tidied on top

Do they cut our hair down there? :eek:

Shield

pvt.joker wrote: »

Do they cut our hair down there? :eek:

Down THERE? :eek:

pvt.joker

lol! I meant down in Templemore

Shield

pvt.joker wrote: »

lol! I meant down in Templemore

Ah right Ted...

TheNog

No you will have to visit a barbers for that. There are a few in templemore or you could go to your own at home.

There is no particular style required for DOWN THERE.

Dr_MaSoN

cheers nog

AntiRip

TheNog wrote: »

The country roster can be found here Untitled.jpg. Hope this is clear to ye. The City roster I cannot help you with at all.

Isn't the 10pm-6am to 2pm-10pm shift changeover breaking the rules of employment rights and working conditions that state "You are entitled to 11 consecutive hours rest in any period of 24 hours"?

AntiRip

Also, just surfing here on the night shift and came across this (absolutely no relevance to an garda but still) starting off with $35,881 for the very first day of college! compared to e192 or so


"Some of the physical activities by police officers and environmental conditions experience are: working outdoors in all kinds of weather; walking and/or standing in an assigned area during a tour; driving or sitting in a patrol car during a tour while remaining alert; running after a fleeing suspect; climbing up stairs; carrying an injured adult with assistance; gripping persons to prevent escape; restraining a suspect by use of handcuffs; detecting odors such as those caused by smoke or gas leaks; engaging in hand to hand struggles to subdue a suspect resisting arrest; being physically active for prolonged periods of time; understanding verbal communications over the radio with background noise; reading and writing under low light conditions; carrying or wearing heavy equipment and wearing a bulletproof vest"
(This is a brief description of what you might do in this position and does not include all the duties of this position.)

You earn your money though!! :eek:

TheNog

AntiRip wrote: »

Isn't the 10pm-6am to 2pm-10pm shift changeover breaking the rules of employment rights and working conditions that state "You are entitled to 11 consecutive hours rest in any period of 24 hours"?

Just above your quote on that site it states that Gardai and the Defence Forces are exempt from the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997

We are also exempt from alot of the Health and Safety Act too

AntiRip

TheNog wrote: »

Just above your quote on that site it states that Gardai and the Defence Forces are exempt from the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997

We are also exempt from alot of the Health and Safety Act too

thanks for the info Nog