By Cronan Scanlon
DONEGAL Gardai have been armed with pepper spray for the first time two weeks ago and used it twice in the Letterkenny area to subdue violent individuals.
The Donegal News can reveal most of the 470 strong force in the county have now been trained in the use of pepper spray.
Gardai were forced to use it on two occasions in Letterkenny and Churchill over the past two weeks.
Yesterday, a senior member of the Gardai in Donegal said the spray will be helpful when dealing with particularly violent and aggressive people who resist arrest.
"The spray will be an effective tool for Gardai and we have been looking for it for some time," the spokesman said.
"In one incident, on Letterkenny's Port Road, the spray had to be used to restrain a particularly violent individual who tried to put one member of the force in to a head-lock".
"The spray has a stinging effect, however, it does not have a lasting effect on the person it is used on".
The spokesman added that law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear of the new spray which temporarily incapacitates the victim by causing the involuntarily closing of eyes.
"If someone is asked by a Guard to walk away and go home then they will not have to worry about it. The vast majority of the public are very well behaved ," he stressed.
Gardai have been experiencing increasing injuries arising from public order incidents where officers have been attacked.
In one particularly nasty incident in Letterkenny two years ago, an off-duty Garda Sergeant was attacked and bitten by a number of youths.
Anti-stab vests, in use for many years in other police forces, have also been widely issued in the past year.
The spray complies with all EU regulations and a person is back to normal within a maximum of two hours. However, generally speaking after flushing the face and eyes with water the majority of people are fine within 30 minutes.
The spokesman said that the pepper spray has been used in other counties with great success since its introduction and said it is suitable to use on everyone.
He said it is particularly useful to the gardai when dealing with people who refuse to give up a weapon.
The pepper spray will be carried in a pouch on the garda belt and can only be carried by gardai while on duty except in very exceptional circumstances.
It is still a criminal offence for members of the public to carry or use pepper spray.
