Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 15 Jun 1994

Vol. 443 No. 8

Written Answers. - Community Policing.

Eamon Gilmore

Question:

24 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Justice the progress made to date with regard to the further development of community policing, including the development of the community alert and neighbourhood watch programmes, an increase in the number of community gardaí and the extension of community policing in rural areas; the proposals, if any, she has examined to establish Garda liaison committees to involve local communities in the prevention of crime; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn)

At present, there is a total of four inspectors, 24 sergeants and 203 gardaí engaged in community policing duties. This represents an increase of six sergeants and ten gardaí since November 1993. The first community garda was appointed in November 1987 in the DMA and there has been a gradual expansion of the scheme since then. The scheme has been further expanded in recent times to include Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Mullingar, Athlone and Dundalk. The Garda authorities consider that the community policing scheme is a very successful way of putting gardaí in closer touch with the communities in which they serve and of providing a more visible Garda presence in the streets of our cities and towns. It is planned to expand this scheme further and 13 new areas are currently under consideration, to assess their suitability for community policing.

Neighbourhood Watch was introduced in 1985 following the success of a number of pilot schemes. It is a crime prevention programme which enlists the voluntary help of the community in co-operation with the Garda Siochana. The public response to the scheme continues to be enthusiastic and there are now 1,772 schemes in operation incorporating 323,454 householders throughout the State. This represents an increase of 6.3 per cent in the number of householders involved in the scheme over the past eight months.

The interest in Community Alert, which is a rural based crime prevention programme, has continued to grow. The scheme was originally launched in 1985 and has now grown to the extent that there are 528 schemes in operation. Between August 1991 and the end of last year, there was a 79 per cent increase in the number of schemes in existence.

The efforts of the Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert schemes are now being supported by the development of a new Neighbourhood Watch pack and video will be used to develop the schemes and enhance the knowledge of the gardaí deployed in these areas. In addition, a neighbourhood policing course has been introduced at the DMA Headquarters at Harcourt Square and at in-service training centres around the country.

With regard to the community policing initiative for rural areas, this scheme was extended to 100 Garda stations throughout the country in September 1991 following the success of a pilot scheme. The initiative has proven overall to be very successful, and I understand that the Garda Commissioner will be making proposals to me in the near future in relation to the possible extension of the initiative to other Garda Districts.

I am in favour of the further development of this initiative as resources permit, because as I have said before, there is no point in having gardaí deskbound in their offices pushing paper around. Their place is out on the streets providing a visible Garda presence in the communities which they serve.

Both Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert committees liaise on a regular basis with local gardaí on the operation of the schemes and crime related issues generally.