Garda reserve would provide valuable back-up

THE fear of criminals may be palpable to Cllr Noel Collins but the purpose of the garda reserve is to combat not the class of criminal described by Cllr Collins but to provide a degree of back-up to our overstretched professional gardaí (Irish Examiner letters, April 22).

It is also to provide a visible and viable deterrent, on a local and community-based level, to the antisocial behaviour and mindless vandalism which affects all communities in Ireland today.

These reserve forces work. The evidence is there from both Britain and the US, where civic-minded citizens play their part in protecting the majority from the minority of troublemakers who make life so unpleasant for us all.