Calls for more community gardaí

WATERFORD urgently needs more gardaí, particularly community-based officers, if it is to continue to win the battle against crime, a local councillor has said.

Labour Party Cllr Seamus Ryan said that the absence of sufficient numbers of visible and active community gardaí on the streets of Waterford was contributing to the scourge of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Speaking following the publication of Labour’s Better Policing for Safer Communities document earlier this week, he said: “The Labour Party wants a country that is better, and more effectively, policed. One of the great disappointments of modern Ireland is that despite the huge economic growth over the last 15 years, much decreased unemployment and generally improved living standards, so many of our communities are still plagued by crime and vandalism.”

“We want to see the establishment of community policing fora comprising public representatives, the garda officers in charge of the area, other garda personnel, representatives of residents associations and community groups as well as members of the public and local authority members.