Policing Committee Meeting, Oct 15 2007
October 15th, 2007The Letterkenny Joint Policing Committee is meeting again today. There are a number of items on the agenda, chief among them a presentation from Aibhlinn McCrann.
Aibhlinn was heavily involved in preparing the Ballymun Community Safety Strategy, a document and community process which brought together various stakeholder groups in the Ballymun area (Gardai, Local Authority, Local Residents, Community Groups, Employers etc) to discuss matters of public safety, anti-community behaviour and general policing. Over a number of months they developed a very coherent strategy, setting out the problems the area faces and how the various groups will address. More information on the Safer Ballymun programme is available from Ballymun Regeneration.
Is Letterkenny in the same league as Ballymun? Of course not. I’m sure there are many who will jump to this conclusion, and even those who will use the fact that we are discussing the Ballymun document against us (the JPC, Gardai, the Council or all three). That would be either reactionary and naive, or politically-motivated and spiteful.
The Ballymun programme has succesfully brought together people from across the community, and has produced a very coherent strategy that can only be of benefit to the Community. This is the gold-stanmdard for community and policing interaction. We have asked Aibhlinn to make a presentation to the policing committee to illustrate how they brought it about, so that we can begin the process of developing a Letterkenny Community Safety Strategy.
We have some succesful initiatives in place already. Most notable is the Community Policing Programme whereby every housing development and residential area in the town has been allocated a “Community Garda” with responsible for getting to know the residents and the various issues in earch area. I’m not aware of any other town where this has been down on a town-wide basis (some have it in specific areas), and the programme shows the commitment of the Gardai authorities to Community policing in the town.
Cllr Gerry McMonagle and I have met with Supt Vincent O’Brien and officials from the Council to discuss this programme previously. The wider JPC will now get the opportunity to see the programme, how it was put together and how it has worked. I hope they will support us moving forward with our own programme in Letterkenny.
Below, a piece from Highland Radio news today at 1pm on this issue.
