Gardaí chipping in to help the community through Covid-19 crisis

Stephen Scully, Cork City Council and Sgt. Mick O’Connell encouraging social distancing in Blackrock village.

“I’d love a bag of chips now, guard,” Mary said as one of Cork’s community gardaí delivered groceries to her door.

The request sent officers hunting for open chippers to cheer-up the self-isolating through the Covid-19 crisis.

“You’d only get that in Ireland,” Community Policing Sergeant for Cork City, Michael O Connell said.

“And there’s great banter out there, northsiders are full of wit and chat, they don’t want to let you go.”

But underneath the jokes and friendly smiles, the service that community gardaí are providing across the country is serious.

They are a lifeline to the vulnerable and elderly, cocooned in their homes, bringing meals-on-wheels, pensions, medicine, fuel and the weekly shop to their door.

“We keep a safe distance but we have a few words,” Sgt O’Connell said.

“It takes the pressure off when people know that they’re not going to be forgotten about.

Some people are very slow to ask for help, so our members are out on the beat, checking on people who are vulnerable, asking in the local shops to let us know if someone’s been distressed or if John hasn’t been in to collect his daily paper in a while.

To ensure that gardaí are available to deliver those services whenever needed, they are working longer hours. What was a 10-hour shift pre-virus is now 12 hours.

A dedicated coronavirus helpline has also been set up at Anglesea Street Garda station (phone [phone]). Voice messages are checked every day so that even if a call is missed, no one is left stranded.

“At the start of the coronavirus situation, we met Cork City Council, Penny Dinners, Cork Simon to put a plan in place, to try to consider everyone’s needs, particularly the most vulnerable,” Sgt O’Connell said. “When a crisis hits it’s good to know that someone has your back.”

Community police numbers have augmented since the crisis. The one inspector, three sergeants and 32 gardaí dedicated to community policing have been joined by new probationary gardaí from Templemore - 16 of whom have been allocated across the city - and from Garda reserves.

And the efforts to ramp up patrols and increase visibility seem to be working.

We’re patrolling parks and estates - anywhere people gather. We’ve had a few calls about groups of youths, but pubs and businesses have stayed closed. They deserve compliments for that.

Although crime statistics have not yet been released for policing districts across Ireland during the Covid-19 crisis, anecdotally, gardaí who are not named in this article, said that assaults and alcohol-related offences have fallen since pubs and clubs shut. Shoplifting and traffic accidents have also decreased.

But scams are still a concern for gardaí.

“There are chancers and bogus callers out there,” Sgt O’Connell said.

“Leaflets are being dropped into houses offering shopping services. There are genuine people out there who want to help but there are also scam artists ready to take advantage of the vulnerable.

“If you get a leaflet through your door, contact the gardaí and we can check whether it’s legitimate or not."

Chief Superintendent of Cork City, Barry McPolin, also warned that individuals do exist who will seek to profit from the most vulnerable.

"My advice is: do not answer the door to strangers and do not click on any links unexpectedly received by text message or email," he said. "If in any doubt, ask a family member or trusted neighbour to contact the named service provider to check the veracity of the message and contact us if you suspect it is not legitimate and we will take it from there."

Chief Supt McPolin said that gardaí have embraced the current Covid-19 challenge, restructuring and adapting to meet the challenge. He also said that the compliance rate in Cork with the new health regulations has been high.

“Gardaí throughout the country are committed to and continue to support communities to reduce the impact of COVID 19," Chief Supt McPolin said.

As a society we find ourselves in a most unusual time where our sense of community is more important than ever. 

“We want everyone to know that your local Gardaí are only a phone call away so don’t think twice about contacting us if you need any help - that’s what we are there for.

"I would ask that people check in with their elderly or vulnerable neighbours who may be cocooning at this time.

"If someone should find themselves needing assistance, I would encourage them to ring their local Garda Station or 999 in the event of an emergency.

"Our dedicated non-emergency Community Policing number is 021-4522069 where a message can be left and a member from Community Policing will return your call."