Garda Armed Support Unit

A Garda Armed Support Unit may be deployed to support local Garda officers in certain high-risk operations.[3] This principally involves offering armed assistance to ordinary Gardaí who are dealing with an incident in which firearms or other weapons (knives, etc.) have been produced. It also includes:[4][5]

• Confronting and disarming persons who are carrying knives or guns
• Providing tactical support to other gardaí carrying out searches
• Carrying out high visibility static and rolling checkpoints and other operations to counteract the movements of criminals
• Overt armed airport and port patrols to counter terrorist attacks[6]

The first Regional Support Unit (RSU) was formed in 2008,[7] following recommendations made by the Barr Tribunal, which brought the existence and role of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to public attention (April 2000, see Death of John Carthy), and questioned the Dublin-based unit's ability to reach other areas of the country quickly.[8][9]

Regional Support Units were originally assigned to support five individual Garda regions – administrative areas drawn on geographical lines which at the time were made up of the Eastern, Northern, Southern, South-Eastern and Western regions and have since been amalgamated into the Southern, Eastern, Northwestern and Dublin Metropolitan regions[10] – but not the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), which had remained the sole responsibility of the ERU.[11] The first RSU was formed on a pilot basis in the Southern Region (the administrative area which at the time consisted of counties Cork, Limerick and Kerry).[7][11]

As of 2012, RSU units began operating on a full-time permanent armed basis in the Eastern, Northern, Southern, South-Eastern and Western regions after a trial period.[12][13][14][15] Serious incidents such as barricaded sieges, hostage takings or terrorism can result in the deployment of the ERU.

In 2016 it was decided that a Regional Support Unit should be established in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) to counteract the growing threat of gangland drug crime and terrorism risks.[16] Previously the Dublin Garda region had been provided with tactical support by the Emergency Response Unit. As part of this process, the term Regional Support Unit was replaced by the term Armed Support Unit (ASU).

The Dublin ASU began operating in early 2016 with a complement of 55-60 full-time armed officers, including 5 sergeants.[17] The Dublin-based unit is equipped with marked and unmarked vehicles,[18] and was officially launched in late 2016.[19]

In April 2016 it was confirmed that Armed Support Units would be deployed overtly to patrol both Dublin Airport and Dublin Port full-time on foot inside terminal buildings and via vehicles outside and surrounding the perimeter, carrying personal defense weapons, sidearms, tasers and other specialist equipment to counter the rising threat of terrorist attacks in Europe.[20][21]

During the first six months of 2022, the ASU did not use their firearms at any time. They used a single "SIR-X" rubber bullet on one occasion.[22]

Garda ASU officers undergo training over a thirteen-week period, which includes instruction in:

• Critical incident response
• Tactical deployment
• Conflict resolution
• Negotiation techniques
• Deployment protocols and controls
• Dynamic entry methods
• Tactical driving
• First aid
• Use of less lethal options and firearms
• Other relevant skills.[7]

The Garda ERU are responsible for ASU training. Some ASU officers later go on to join the ERU. ASU membership consists exclusively of serving officers in the Garda Síochána, who must have at least 4 years experience and a clean disciplinary record.

As of 2016, there were Armed Support Units in all six regions, each with at least 24 members (Dublin having 55 to 60 members),[23] putting the overall manpower at more than 175.[9]

The command of each Armed Support Unit is given to a Detective Superintendent in each geographic region, except in Dublin where the Dublin ASU is under the command of the Garda's Special Tactics and Operations Command (STOC).[24] The STOC, which has "a governance role for the ASUs located outside of Dublin",[24][25] is based in Kevin Street Garda Station.[26]

On 30 December 2020, a member of the Dublin ASU shot and killed George Nkencho in front of his west Dublin home after graduated attempts to disarm him failed.[27][28][29] The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission launched an investigation into the circumstances of his death.[30]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Garda Armed Support Unit.

• Garda Síochána official website