Text alert scheme relying on donations

The community protection scheme that helped track a suspected child abductor last week is still relying on local people to fund it out of their own pockets.

The Community Text Alert Scheme has been adopted by more than 500 rural communities since the initiative was launched 18 months ago and it has sent over a million texts to 100,000 individual subscribers in that time.

Senior gardaí have credited the scheme with helping reduce crime, in particular the thefts that can plague homes and farms in isolated areas.

However, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald recently ruled out providing funds to help local groups in buying the official Community Alert signage and insurance for the scheme, or to cover the cost of sending text messages.

The Department of Justice provides some funds to Muintir na Tíre, the National Association for the Promotion of Community Development, which in turn shows community groups how to set up the scheme in their area, but Ms Fitzgerald said no further financial assistance was available.

“I am currently providing the maximum possible funding to Community Alert that is open to me, having regard to the overall restrictions on my department’s resources and other expenditure needs,” she said in reply to a parliamentary question from Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness.

Muintir na Tíre chief executive Neil Garvey said the question of funding was one they had raised repeatedly since the Community Alert programme was set up 30 years ago.

He said the expansion of the scheme to incorporate the use of mobile technology meant extra costs for communities and while this had not so far deterred new groups, the feeling was they should not be out of pocket.

“We are lobbying for state funding because it’s assisting the gardaí,” said Mr Garvey. “The costs are not exorbitant because we have worked to get a special rate on the insurance and have recommended text message service providers with special deals, but it must be recognised that this scheme assists the gardaí and without it, their job would be more difficult and require more resources.”

The first of the Community Alert programmes, which now number more than 1,000, was set up in 1984 as a co-ordinated way for neighbours to look out for one another, watch out for unusual activity, and share information with the gardaí.

Since the introduction of the Text Alert component, information can be shared much more rapidly, and because texts are often repeated on Twitter and other social media, the message spreads further and faster.

The system was used to good effect in Laois last week when gardaí needed to track down a vehicle used in an attempted child abduction and to warn people about the potential danger in their midst.