Antisocial behaviour initiative for city
After a three-week training programme, the coordinators will patrol certain areas of the city to tackle trouble on the streets with a softy softly approach.
Seven of the coordinators are women and all have third level qualifications.
The Department of the Environment has given €1 million to finance the Limerick pilot scheme over an initial two-year period.
The scheme will be managed by the Limerick City Community Safety Partnership, whose three directors are Limerick city manager Tom Mackey, Chief Supt Willie Keane and John Hennessy, area manager of the Health Safety Executive.
A spokesman said: “We have been pleasantly surprised by the age profile and the qualifications of the people who have come forward.
“We will have to feel our way along and this is to be a softly, softly rather than a commando approach.”
The new coordinators will communicate with State agencies as the need arises.
“They will work in the role of friends of the community and not cross into garda territory of operation,” said the spokesman.
“How it develops will depend to a large extent on the coordinators themselves, and how they get involved in the communities... There is no tight job description.”
The coordinators will work in twos and carry two-way radios, and will wear casual but distinctive uniforms.
Their principal objective will be to tackle antisocial behaviour by interacting with young people involved, and, if necessary, introducing them to services, which may be able to help them.
“They will endeavour to identify young people who may be a bit wayward and help them by getting them in contact with social services. The idea is to deal with issues rather than let them develop,” he said.
The coordinators will initially concentrate their presence in areas which have medium levels of antisocial behaviour, rather than the more troubled crime black spots of the city.
The scheme is modelled on similar ones in the British cities of Stockport and Manchester.
