As part of Operation Thor, co-ordinated, multi agency checkpoints were carried out by Gardai from the DMR Northern Division, Garda Regional Traffic Units, officers from Revenue Customs Services and staff of the Taxi Regulator’s Office.
The planned checkpoints took place in the Balbriggan/M1 Motorway area between 2am and 12 midday Sunday 6th December 2015 targeting criminality on the motorway network. Multi agency, high visibility checkpoints are a deterrent for criminal activity. However, shouldn’t these type of checkpoints become the norm rather than the newsworthy exception, until the high levels of lawlessness that obviously exist are dramatically reduced?
During the operation seven persons were arrested for Road Traffic offences and court related matters. Eight vehicles were seized for breaches contravening the Road Traffic Act. In excess of one hundred vehicles were searched resulting in the seizure of a quantity of suspected stolen property, including power tools. A number of counterfeit goods were also recovered.
A total of ten offences were detected by the Taxi Regulator’s Office who examined in excess of 150 public service vehicles. Officers from the Customs Revenue Services checked over 100 vehicles, four of which were found to contain ‘green diesel’. One other vehicle was seized for VRT offences.
I have only one question. Why does the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner not have two of these high level checkpoints every week of the year until they seriously impact on lawlessness? They should extend to national primary routes and the suburbs of our major cities for shorter durations of say three hours (where they could do two in one region in a work shift), with sufficient Gardai (backed up with army personnel where required) to cover turning-off on all side roads and any vehicles doing u-turns for 3k in both directions leading up to these checkpoints, while they are in progress. The seizures and the fines would cover the costs, without even calculating the positive correctiveness (and revenues generated) that would occur due to fear of detection as the checkpoints are rolled out!
