Should social workers patrol Dublin’s public transport alongside transport police?

One survey respondent said they had nine stitches beside their eye after an assault, and were out of work for 14 weeks. 

Just five percent of drivers from an ethnic minority background said that abuse was not an issue for them at work.

Those findings and others, when SIPTU surveyed its members from the transport sector in early 2024, were a shock, says SIPTU transport sector organiser John Murphy.

“We had been getting an increase in reports from staff about the various issues that they were facing,” says Murphy – like anti-social behaviour and abuse. 

“But when we did the survey, the answers were even surprising to ourselves,” he said.

Transport workers said they regularly faced threats of violence and sexual violence, racial abuse, illegal drug use, and even physical assaults, said Murphy by phone on Wednesday. 

They also witnessed passengers facing similar problems, he says.

Based on the survey, SIPTU made two recommendations to government in its Travel Safe report.

Firstly, to establish a new national public transport police, separate to An Garda Síochana, but with powers of arrest.

Secondly, that new police force should include a social-care element, through Public Transport Assistance Units.

These specialised units, with trained social care intervention officers, would be better equipped to deal with people suffering from underlying care issues, like homelessness or drug misuse, Murphy says, rather than taking a traditional policing approach.

Government has set up a working group that is tasked with the practicalities of a transport security force – but it’s unclear whether or not that social care element will be part of what is rolled out.

Murphy says it is a crucial part of the plan. It shouldn’t be overlooked, he said. 

But Marina Bell, a criminologist and member of the Irish Penal Abolition Network, says that while this idea for what is sometimes called a “co-responder model” comes from a good place, it could have a wider, and negative, impact.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said that models for the transport security force are being looked at and are at early stages. “All operational aspects of the Transport Security Force will be considered as this work is progressed.”

The minister plans to engage with unions over the next few weeks to get their ideas and perspectives, they said. 

Dublin Bus would not answer directly a query as to whether it supports the inclusion of a social care element in the new transport police plans.

More indicators 

The SIPTU survey threw up many more indicators of poor work safety for those in the transport sector.

More than one in ten bus drivers surveyed had experienced physical abuse. Most said things had gotten worse in the 12 months prior.

All black respondents on buses said they have issues with abuse from passengers.

Of Luas workers, 98 percent said anti-social behaviour and abuse was an issue. 

More than half the respondents from Iarnród Éireann said they experience abuse every week. More than one in 10 said it was daily.

SIPTU’s proposal for assistance units, says Murphy, is based on the idea that rather than making arrests, some people need help with the problems they’re facing or referrals on to services which can assist them, he says.

“These two or more person teams would be specifically trained to assist persons in need, while also ensure [sic] the safety of other passengers and transport staff,” SIPTU’s Travel Safe document outlines.

The teams would provide “24-hour interventions on the request of transport staff and as part of patrols of major transport hubs”.

The creation of a “Transport Security Force” under the National Transport Authority (NTA) made it into the Programme for Government 2025, issued in January.

A public transport safety working group was set up, including the NTA, SIPTU, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice, and passenger representative groups.

Would it work?

As someone who works in social care, Louisa Santoro says she is committed to principles of trauma-informed care and harm reduction.

But she is unsure if they should be the functions of a transport police, said Santoro, CEO of the homeless charity Mendicity Institution on Thursday by phone.

Public transport is a shared space, she says, so if one person is causing a disturbance, authorities must also consider the dozens of other people who might be on board.

If someone is injecting drugs or acting dangerously in some way, Santoro says, you have to just respond to what’s happening in the now.

In those moments, she asks, who decides that the person requires one response over another?

Also, people with mental health issues are as entitled to use public transport as anyone else, she says. 

Santoro doesn’t think it’s okay to have social outreach teams hopping on and off public transport, checking in with people. “Because that’s actually none of their business, right?”

There must be an offence for there to be a response, she says.

If the idea is to have the social care units separate from the police, she suggests trialling it now with the help of existing social care workers, like those at Merchants Quay.

But Santoro is unconvinced by the new proposal. 

“The idea that we would have a fleet of roving social workers with stab proof vests on them, being trauma informed on public transport, I just think, is insane,” she says.

Murphy points to similar models in other jurisdictions that were successful, and informed SIPTU’s plan.

Particularly, Paris and Brussels, he says.

In 2023, Brussels public transport company STIB-MIVD hired 25 staff for social intervention teams to work with drug users and homeless people across the transport network.

The success of a similar scheme in Paris, operating since 1994, is also an inspiration, he says.

A co-responder model

This new approach, as suggested by SIPTU, is known as a “co-responder model”, says Marina Bell, a criminologist and member of the Irish Penal Abolition Network.

This is where there's the recognition of the need for a social care component and mental health intervention, but they're being deployed with police officers.

While the co-responder model comes from the right line of thinking, Bell says, it remains deeply problematic.

In her experience, Bell says, many recipients of social care already feel like they’re being controlled, surveilled, and coerced.

In many instances, she says, when such vulnerable people see police and social care workers side by side, they're less likely to avail of the care services.

“They're less trusting. And in general, it can have the effect of making the social care institutions more cold, more coercive, controlling, surveillance-oriented and punitive,” she says.

Bell says that workers' experiences suffering abuse and crimes from the public are absolutely valid, as are those workers' desires to feel safe.

But, as a penal abolitionist, she remains unconvinced that the answer to society's problems is more policing.

She suggests deploying social workers, and not the police.

Bell shares a similar concern to Santoro. A “conceptual divide and legal divide” emerges, she says, when it’s decided one person is experiencing a mental health crisis and should be treated a softer way, while another should be treated in a harsher, legal way.

Many who get put into the harsher category will also have some history of homelessness, mental health issues or drug problems of some sort, she says.

“So, what happens is we end up dividing people into those who deserve care and those who deserve punishment. And that's also really problematic because those categories are not real,” says Bell.

Down the line

People in distress, or who have complex challenges, shouldn’t be further disadvantaged by being brought to the attention of the criminal justice system, says Caroline Strong, the chief operating officer of the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW).

While social care workers on public transport could help to alleviate this, it would need significant planning and resources, said Strong by email.

“Even if transport security were trained to an adequate standard in recognising the need for a more social care response – and they should be, as they are dealing with the public – how does that officer ensure the individual receives the appropriate intervention from the appropriate services which are already stretched?” Strong says

Resources should be put into existing social care services, she says, with enhanced training given to those in transport security to assess social care need.

Those people should then be directed to appropriate services.

Similar to Santoro, Strong thinks the strategy would require a pilot run, before it is polished and rolled out nationwide, she says.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.