Community gardaí ‘key in fighting crime’

COMMUNITY policing is crucial to the prevention and investigation of crime, Dublin’s top garda told an international conference yesterday.

Assistant Commissioner Al McHugh said community policing often described as the 'Cinderella' arm of the Garda Síochána was top of his agenda in the capital.

He told the conference he had put 30 extra officers into community policing in the Dublin west division, an area with a relatively high level of crime and a young population.

Despite the need to investigate serious crime in the area including murders and armed robberies he said he had instructed that the officers be kept in community policing as much as possible.

He was speaking at a two-day conference in Dublin attended by police delegates from 17 of the 25 European Union member states as well as representatives from a range of domestic agencies.

These included St James's Hospital, Dublin Bus, Dublin City Council, Dublin City Business Association, Dublin Fire Brigade, the Irish nightclub industry and the National Crime Council.

Mr McHugh said community policing was essential in preventing crime, addressing people's fear of crime and building up relationships with young people.

But he told the conference that while the Garda Síochána was the main agency tasked with crime prevention and investigation, other players needed to be more involved.

The conference, which was not open to the public or media, heard calls for parents to take more responsibility for their children, particularly those aged up to seven years.

"We would think that this is a very formative time for children," said Inspector Frank Walsh of the Dublin Metropolitan Regional Office and project director for the conference.

"We do try and address kids early, more in terms of road traffic safety and, in the later stages, crime, with the aim of engendering respect for people and property and to get them to know gardaí. Hopefully, they'll see there's not a wall between us."

He said a point made at the conference was that Dublin was an intimidating place to be.

"If it is intimidating, it's something we have to address. If it's not intimidating, it's still something we have to address the perception of intimidation. Work has to be done either way."

He said an interagency approach was needed: "We are trying to get across that, while we are the main agency tasked with investigating and preventing crime, we can't do it on our own."

The conference is being funded by the Department of Justice and the EU AGIS Programme.