EVERY STREET IN the country is going to have a garda assigned to it according to Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy.
He told TheJournal.ie that the community policing plan is already in place in the north inner city and is due to be rolled out in Dublin by the end of this year.
Residents will be able to raise concerns to their assigned officer on policing and quality of life issues and are guaranteed to receive a response.
Leahy explained that it’s part of a modernisation programme that is bringing community policing back to areas.
The gardaí are using census data and information from the CSO to gather data on all areas so the officers in charge will have a strong understanding of the area and its socio-economic factors. Leahy said:
We’ll be assigning ownership of places to individual gardaí and the garda reserve and they will be held accountable for policing and quality of life issues in those small areas.
“It brings about more accountability and ownership. It also allows gardaí to be innovative and creative – they can come up with their own ideas and solutions and we’ll provide policing data.”
He added that it’s being trialled in Louth and Kildare at the moment, adding, “We’ve committed to teams in every division around the country”.
This has been implemented in the north inner city for the past number years and in 2015 it was recognised for best practice in community policing by the European Public Sector Award (EPSA).
Leahy said this is a tried and tested approach that the gardaí are now simply expanding on.
“It’s embedded in the north inner city, we will have mapped out the whole of Dublin city in three or four weeks time and will then be delivering community policing back to areas.”
He said everybody in the county should know exactly who their community garda is and that strong relation have already been formed on the existing model.
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