Richard Bruton
Question:86. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she has received a report of the impact of the initiative in crime statistics and in feedback from organisations in the area. [33994/23]
View answerTuesday, 11 July 2023
Questions (86)
Written answers
A key element of our policy on building safer and stronger communities is that communities themselves have a crucial role to play. There is no one size fits all approach, because each community has different needs and challenges.
My Department's community safety policy is about people being safe and feeling safe in their own community. This approach goes far beyond the traditional policing response and requires all relevant state bodies and voluntary organisations to work together in a joined-up way, in partnership with the local community, to prioritise and address issues in their own area.
The Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill will place statutory obligations on Departments and other public service bodies to cooperate with each other to improve community safety. It also establishes national structures to provide strategic direction and ensure that collaboration is working, and establishes Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs), which will replace existing Joint Policing Committees.
There are currently three pilot LCSPs, including one in Dublin’s North Inner City, which is finalising a local community safety plan, setting out the key actions to address safety concerns in their community and assigning ownership for these actions. This plan will ensure that communities in the North Inner City can thrive and flourish, through collaborative actions to prevent and deter crime and harmful behaviours.
The Department has also provided funding to the Dublin LCSP through the Community Safety Innovation Fund to develop a Community Safety Warden scheme which will promote a space for recreation in and around Wolfe Tone Park, and an extension to the scheme will include the O’Connell Street area during weekends. The scheme will provide a visible presence that will act both as a deterrent to criminal and anti-social behaviour, and as reassurance to the community.
An Garda Síochána, with input from the Department of Justice and the LCSP pilots, have developed a quarterly data template for the national roll-out of the LCSPs to capture relevant statistics on a quarterly basis to inform the work of the LCSPs and the development and implementation of their Community Safety Plans. The pilot LCSPs are also undergoing an ongoing independent evaluation to ensure that, when established nationally, the LCSPs will be designed and supported to help communities prioritise issues raised by its members as safety concerns. A baseline and mid-term evaluation have been completed and data collection is currently underway for the final evaluation of the pilots, which is due to be completed in Q4 2024.
As I’m sure the Deputy will appreciate , it will take some time to establish a measurable level of impact these partnerships and schemes will have on crime prevention in each area, but the early indicators are positive.