How hard is it to give Gardaí Bluetooth sets?

flazio

The amount of times I see Gardaí on the phones when driving is annoying. I don't blame the Guard, it's probably on business but it does undermine the efforts of TC to catch out people driving distracted.
Surely, Bluetooth radios are a cheap add on for the squad cars and if privacy is an issue, ear pieces are usually about €10 to €20 each. If I was a Guard , I'd be willing to pay for that myself.
(Before it's asked, no I didn't get caught driving with my phone. I have the relevant cradle and stereo Bluetooth radio in my car. )

Mister Jingles

I too see this a lot, to me it just comes across as the pot calling the kettle black type of thing.

CharlieCroker

The state don't provide gardai with phones so they don't provide them with earpieces.

There's not a guard in the country who doesn't take work calls on their personal phone though.

Give me a phone and I'll happily use an earpiece. I won't get my hopes up anytime soon.

kub

Surely the Tetra ear pieces would function on a mobile phone, surely they are standard audio jacks.

bravestar

kub wrote: »

Surely the Tetra ear pieces would function on a mobile phone, surely they are standard audio jacks.

They may not because of the little safety screw that keeps the jack attached. Also, it would be just as dangerous trying to swap them over while your driving...

kub

kub wrote: »

Surely the Tetra ear pieces would function on a mobile phone, surely they are standard audio jacks.

2.5mm jack I believe. The only earpiece supplied is the over ear type and it's uncomfortable if worn for any amount of time. No mic on it.

Terrontress

Lots of PSNI seem to have earpieces in all the time. Both in cars and while walking.

markpb

bravestar wrote:

They may not because of the little safety screw that keeps the jack attached. Also, it would be just as dangerous trying to swap them over while your driving...

Why would you be swapping them while driving?

bravestar

markpb wrote: »

Why would you be swapping them while driving?

Because if you have it connected to your radio , how else are you meant to use it with your phone.

irishrgr

Yes, Bluetooth would be helpful, but then you can't compel me to use my personal phone at work. We went through it over here, so we got a phone allowance. That brought up Freedom of Information Act issues, who owns the data on the phone? SO, phone allowances went away until they bought us dept issue phones. It makes the legal issues cleaner, but took two years as it cost an additional $5 million (for a multi year contract). Even then, the dept only issued 400 phones, mostly to patrol and detectives. I use my phone all the time, it doesn't cost me anything, but I'm not required to disclose anything on it without a court order/warrant.
We did get issued the nifty Motorola earbuds for the radio though, bloody brilliant piece of kit. No one can hear the radio (like when I confirm they are wanted), no more bulky shoulder mike, radio at constant low volume, very nice.

Miaireland

To be fair to most of the Garda I know use their own phone for work for both incoming and out going calls.I don't see why they should also have to pay for bluetooth for work as well. They should be provided with phones, bluetooth, decent work stations etc.I met a Garda in a local car repair shop a couple of years ago paying for a bulb to be replaced out of his own pocket in.a squad car. As he put it, if they didn't do it, it would take days or weeks and he didn't want to be driving on a country lane in a storm with only one headlight.

flazio

As I said in my OP I'm not looking to blame the Gardaí actually doing it. My problem is, if the RSA and the top brass are serious about cracking down on distracted driving (as demonstrated by the ads informing us about the rise of penalty) then the people who enforce the law should be helped to set the example, be that a better radio network to eliminate need for using phones or hands free equipment supplied. It looks terrible.

CharlieCroker

flazio wrote: »

As I said in my OP I'm not looking to blame the Gardaí actually doing it. My problem is, if the RSA and the top brass are serious about cracking down on distracted driving (as demonstrated by the ads informing us about the rise of penalty) then the people who enforce the law should be helped to set the example, be that a better radio network to eliminate need for using phones or hands free equipment supplied. It looks terrible.

I don't think anyone, including the guard in the ground, would argue that with you.

The Black Oil

Isn't there a limit to the number of Bluetooth devices you can add to the car anyway? You'd have to delete and add people at the end or start of each shift. Seems a little impractical.

The Black Oil

The Black Oil wrote: »

Isn't there a limit to the number of Bluetooth devices you can add to the car anyway? You'd have to delete and add people at the end or start of each shift. Seems a little impractical.

That's a redundant question as the radio/entertainment/communication systems are removed from the cars.