MIDDLE-RANKING GARDAÍ have raised concerns about the phenomenon of so-called “citizen journalists” who publish videos of interactions with gardaí for social media engagement.   

The annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) is calling for greater action to be taken to protect gardaí and their families from the mental stress attached to on-camera provocation. 

Inspector Amanda Flood of Store Street Garda Station has also specifically raised the problem of  so-called ‘auditors’ filming inside garda stations, saying that this practice could prevent victims of crime asking for help.

Auditors are a relatively new phenomenon that started in US cities in which people aggressively approach police and film their interactions with the public.

Flood said that in recent years there has been a rise in the practice of members of the public filming gardaí and posting an edited version of the interaction online. 

Flood said that this has morphed into large amounts of videos, in which people go into public or secure areas of garda stations and attempt to provoke a reaction from the gardaí when they are asked to leave. 

The inspector has brought a motion to the AGSI conference seeking action to be taken to protect gardaí and members of the public.

There are concerns, Flood said, that victims of crimes such as domestic violence or sexual offences, may be exposed to their abusers when they are reporting the crime to gardaí due to the filming. 

“I would like to think of garda stations as a safe place for those seeking refuge from aggressors and with anyone coming into a garda station there is a potential for them to be there to report a crime.

“People are coming into garda stations to film there and then they are putting them [victims] at risk.

“Before Christmas there was a call out for anyone who is suffering coercive control or domestic violence to come into a garda station and report that and there are cases whereby auditors have come in and filmed members of the public doing that and it didn’t put them in a safe place,” she said. 

The phenomenon of “citizen journalists” has also caused concerns – they are members of the public who live stream interactions or publish “clipped” videos on line from protests for social media engagement.   

“Citizen journalists go into highly pressurised emotionally charged and potentially volatile situations and subsequently antagonise members to such an extent of wanting to elicit a response. They then clip that response and post it online in the hopes of going viral.

“It is a widespread problem,” she said. 

Flood said that the interactions with citizen journalists have been aggressive and they have been “in members’ faces and it takes a toll on members and their families as well”. 

“Behind every guard there is a family – that’s important to acknowledge,” she said. 

Flood added that gardaí have no problem with transparency and accountability but that the auditors and citizen journalists are going beyond that. 

“We are all paid to do a job and we do that job – but for example you go into your NCT centre and get the car NCT’ed and there are signs everywhere saying you can’t film in that particular area whereas we don’t have that benefit where we work,” she added. 

Flood has called for three measures to be introduced.

Firstly she said that clear guidelines must be given to gardaí to deal with being filmed by aggressive people.

She has said that new legal protections must be introduced to protect members of the public and gardaí from “harassment, or doxxing in some cases”. Doxxing is where private information is published online to intimidate people. 

Flood said that garda management needs to support their workforce when they suffer an incident.

“I can say from firsthand experience I have had members in a situation where they have been exposed to this and we have had to deal with the aftermath.

“If people are exposed to this, they may be hesitant. Then at the end of the day the member or other member’s safety, or indeed members of the public safety can be affected by that,” she added.