Criminal gangs know rural localities better than gardaí, warns councillor
Fine Gael Cllr Liam Galvin, of the Co Limerick joint policing committee, said the closure of rural Garda stations and centralisation of Garda resources in larger towns had opened up opportunities for roaming gangs to break in to houses and steal from businesses.
His comments come amid a spike in rural crime.
He said: “The gardaí were involved in the communities and knew the people. There was a trust and a bond there. In my own area, my biggest fear is that Newcastle West will become the central hub of Garda operations, and rural communities will be at a major loss because they will not know their guards. I was talking to a rural businessman who has been in business 38 years and did not [now] know one guard in his area.”
He said patrol cars alone could not counter gangs which moved around wide areas of the country in powerful vehicles.
“These criminals are now able to get plenty of information about vulnerable communities from their own criminal contacts on the ground.”
Mr Galvin said every village needed to be policed by a local garda on the beat.
“A garda moving around a village and the rural hinterland ... will be able to pick up a lot of information through interacting with the local community on the ground... [In the past] the rural guard knew everybody and everybody knew the guard. It is now gone to a sad state of affairs that rural communities don’t know the gardaí and the gardaí don’t know the people. That bond is being lost.”
He urged a major review of the situation.
“The withdrawal of the garda from the village is opening the village to the prey of the criminal. There must be a major change in policy and the gardaí must go back to the people and pick up the connection that gives them the knowledge to fight crime. The sooner the money is given to the gardaí to do this the better.”
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