Tackling crime - Public may not support weak force

In an ideal world, people would take personal responsibility for helping the gardaí in their fight against crime, as Justice Minister Micheal McDowell urged yesterday.

In an ideal world, there would be an extra 2,000 gardaí on the streets to help make them safer if Mr McDowell’s Government had delivered election promises. But it did not, and there are not, and so in the absence of gardaí on the beat in any meaningful presence, the public is being exhorted to help out.

Presumably, Mr McDowell was advocating that citizens engage with the force through the Garda Crimestoppers phone line, which was re-launched yesterday, rather than any direct engagement with criminals.

In itself, Crimestoppers is a good idea which, as the minister said, has been proven to lower crime and its reappearance will coincide with a new RTÉ television programme called Crime Call.

There is a vicious type of street violence developing, such as the incident gardaí in Cork city are investigating in which a 17-year-old boy was set on fire by three men who had demanded money.

The public will be more willing to co-operate through a phone line, especially as it can be anonymous, rather than direct interaction.

Despite the fact that it has a proven track record in helping the fight against crime, Mr McDowell’s department only provided a grant of €100,000 and it will depend on contributions from various organisations, such as the Vintners Federation of Ireland, Ulster Bank and other public service bodies.

While it is good to see such a display of public spiritedness, it would have been more appropriate had gardaí been given an adequate budget to run the phone line and be independent of extraneous contributions.