DISTRICT Courts across the county are ‘choc-a-bloc’ with court lists out the door, according to a North-Cork based superintendent who added that there are no journalists reporting on many of them, either.
Supt Michael Corbett was speaking at a meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee (JPC) where he outlined how busy the district courts are.
He said that the public may be unaware of the hundreds of prosecutions taking place because there are no court reporters covering several North Cork district courts in particular.
Supt Corbett said he travels around the county regularly and that every single district court in Cork county is’ full to the hilt’ every single day.
‘Some of the court lists they can’t even get through on a given day and they are absolutely out the door. Unfortunately It’s the times that we live in, but there was a time that a lot of media had court reporters covering the court cases but they’re no longer in the courts. So a lot of public don’t realise that there are a lot of prosecutions going on every single day of the week in the county.’
He said that it is mainly garda prosecutions being dealt with in the courts and said it’s a point that is sometimes lost as it’s not publicised.
He recalled that Mallow District Court recently was ‘choc-a-bloc’ and they were ‘out the door’.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil Deputy Padraig O’Sullivan raised the matter of recording gardaí in their line of duty. Deputy O’Sullivan referenced a recent incident in Cork city where a picture was posted by a public rep on social media of a garda standing outside McDonalds during a pro-Palestine march.
He asked what are the procedures when it comes to filming gardaí on duty. ‘Someone can shove a phone in your face these days without any fear or recrimination and I’d like to know what are the protections for ordinary members?’ asked Deputy O’Sullivan.
Supt Corbett said that some video clips posted online can be taken completely out of context.
‘In general, while social media can have some very beneficial and good aspects it also brings with it some challenging issues and there is a downside to it. That includes recording gardaí lawfully carrying out their duty, and then being edited and posted online and being completely out of context,’ said Supt Corbett.
‘To anyone who is being recorded the first thing I would tell the person is that I don’t consent to it and make my objections quite clear. It’s certainly a challenge and until such time we have legislation to deal with it directly it’s going to be problematic for the future. Everyone has a phone too in their pocket and they can edit a video and upload it immediately.’
Cllr Joe O’Carroll (FF) noted the restrictions that gardaí are under when dealing with public order incidents and referenced the riots in Dublin last year.
‘Are there too much restrictions on the gardaí? We don’t want a police state but we want them to be able to deal with these known criminals. I’m not alone in saying this and someone actually said to me that who would want to join the guards now,’ said Cllr Carroll.
