Today at the Garda College, Templemore, Co. Tipperary Assistant Commissioner Gerry Phillips formally launched the Regional Support Unit (RSU) for the South Eastern Region.
Since March 2012 the South Eastern Region is being policed by members of the RSU who will support existing resources and provide increased capability to deal with incidents or perform tasks such as checkpoints and searches and will be available as a dedicated resource to provide support to other Garda units engaged in frontline policing. This unit will also provide a greatly enhanced capacity to deal with the challenges posed by criminals in the region or criminals who travel into the region to commit crime.
The aim of the RSU is to provide a service that increases the level of security and safety in our society and the deployment in this region marks the full national roll out of regional response units in the five regions outside of the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
The establishment of Regional Support Units provides the Gardai with a graduated response to critical incidents, supporting frontline officers in a prompt and skilled manner and are trained & equipped to contain a situation pending arrival of other specialist or national units, if required.
Speaking at today’s formal launch Assistant Commissioner Phillips said "The deployment of the RSU in the South Eastern Region adds another important layer to our policing response in the region and, as it marks the completion of the national roll out, provides a highly mobile response to the challenges posed by travelling criminals.”
Today’s launch coincided with a crime conference chaired by Assistant Commissioner Phillips focusing on operations and investigations which are directed at disrupting and arresting travelling criminals involved in carrying out burglaries and other crimes in the region. Operation Laidir, which is part of the national Garda Operation Fiacla, is targeting and confronting the travelling criminals who are responsible for a large number of burglaries in the region.
In the Regions where RSU’s have been in operation there have been a number of important successes. The units have been involved in a wide variety of cases including:-
Confronting and disarming persons who were carrying knives or guns.
Saving a person’s life through use of a defibrillator which they are qualified to use
Providing tactical support to other gardai carrying out searches,
Carrying out high visibility static checkpoints and other operations to counteract the movements of criminals.
Additional Information -
R.S.U. officers have undergone training to a high level over a thirteen week period, including instruction in critical incident response; tactical deployment; conflict resolution/negotiation techniques; deployment protocols & controls; entry methods; tactical driving; first aid; the use of less lethal options & firearms and other relevant skills.
RSU’s will patrol as regular uniform Gardaí performing the normal policing functions on a daily basis throughout the Region. When an RSU is deployed to a critical incident they will change to tactical uniform and will have access to firearms. Both the tactical gear and modifications to their vehicle (including signage and lighting) when in response mode are such as to ensure that they are clearly identifiable and distinguishable from regular officers.
Deployment of Regional Support Units -
Southern Unit – Deployed September 2008
Eastern Unit – Deployed August 2009
Western Unit – Deployed February 2010
Northern Region – Deployed September 2010
South Eastern Region - Deployed March 2012
Garda Press Office
The formal launch of the South Eastern Regional Support Unit will take place at the Garda College, Templemore on the 9th of May 2012 at 12.30pm.
The Garda South Eastern Region encompasses the Garda Divisions of Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny/Carlow.
There will be a media briefing and photo opportunities at The Garda College.
