The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has called for the televising of all serious criminal trials, in particular murder, manslaughter and kidnapping cases.
AGSI President Paschal Feeney says it is high time the general public became more fully aware of what he calls 'the carry-on in our courts', the pressures that witnesses and victims of crime are placed under and the antics, showmanship and histrionics.
The courts would become more transparent he says and the extent of witness intimidation and its effects would become clear.
Mr Feeney has also strongly criticised the Garda Ombudsman Commission's attempt to change the legislation to allow gardaí investigate minor complaints against gardaí.
This, he says, would be a retrograde step that should be resisted by the legislators because the Commission should not be permitted to cherry pick cases to investigate.
However, a spokesman for the Commission said this evening that while it has to investigate all allegations of potential criminality against gardaí, it often becomes apparent very quickly that if the offence is of a minor nature, it does not require the full mechanism of an independent investigation.
Garda Sergeants and Inspectors also called on the Garda Commissioner to reverse his plans to arm regional support units comprised of uniformed gardaí.
The units form part of the current policing plan, which aims to tackle gun crime and reduce the crime rate by 2% by the end of the year.
However, middle ranking gardaí say they want to ensure the continuance of current policy that uniformed gardaí do not carry firearms.
They also want the Commissioner to ensure that no guns are carried in marked garda cars.
It was discussed at the Annual Conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Co Meath today.
More than 50 motions came before the annual conference, but the issue of arming specialist units was among the first discussed.
Under current proposals, gardaí in specialist units set up for combating gun crime would change out of uniform into plain clothes, arm themselves, and respond whenever an incident arises that calls for an armed response.
Other delegates also want firearms instructors to receive training in the use of less-than-lethal weapons so that they in turn can train others.
They also say that uniformed gardaí wearing stab vests should not have to wear a tie, that pepper spray be issued to deal with violent prisoners and that in the wake of the shooting of Garda Paul Sherlock, suitable ballistic protection should be provided for all Garda motorcyclists.
