Call for further policing meetings in Kildare
Photo for illustrative purposes only
A CALL has been made for private, local meetings to take place between gardaí and county councillors to discuss policing matters within Kildare.
The proposal arose at the most recent meeting of Kildare County Council, where councillor Brendan Wyse of Fine Gael said that it was “a massive mistake” to discard the county’s previous Joint Policing Committee (JPC).
Cllr Angela Feeney of Labour brought forward a motion at the meeting, proposing that the council considers the introduction of private, Municipal District-level operational briefings between councillors and gardaí, and that a letter be written to An Garda Síochána regarding the prospect of these briefings.
Cllr Feeney is the chair of Kildare’s Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP), a new countywide committee designed to address community safety issues, which held it’s first meeting in March.
The LCSP replaced the Kildare JPC, which had previously provided a forum on policing and crime issues.
Cllr Feeney stated that the operational briefings should be considered “without prejudice to the functioning of the LCSP”.
Director of services for climate, community, environment and water Marian Higgins issued the council’s response, which stated that the LCSP “is the formal statutory forum, at county level to plan and progress strategic community safety initiatives.”
The report acknowledged, however, that local-level forums for councillors to engage with garda management on local policing matters could be beneficial, as the LCSP aims to implement strategies to tackle community safety issues.
The report said that the implementation of the briefings would “not confer decision-making power, or any supporting budget” and would instead operate as an information sharing forum.
Ms Higgins report also said that the briefings would “be outside the parameters of the LCSP and would not form part of its formal governance or decision-making structures”.
Cllr Noel Connolly seconded the motion, whilst cllr Wyse spoke to express his support for the proposal, along with cllrs Noel Heavey, Tim Durkan and Suzanne Doyle.
Cllr Durkan said that some members of the public “still have a fear of going directly to the guards” and that it would be beneficial to have a forum where gardaí can be alerted to issues without such members of the public needing to go directly to them.
Cllr Wyse gave his view that “it was a massive mistake to scrap the JPC” as it had been an important mechanism for councillors to liaise with Gardaí regarding matters such as arson attacks in Derrinturn.
He said that he thought the introduction of the LCSP in place of the JPC was a mistake but also said that he was “delighted” to see that cllr Feeney understood the need for the proposed briefings.
Cllr Chris Pender noted the value of the discarded JPCs and said that he would support the proposed briefings “if gardaí are willing to reengage”.
Senior executive officer in the community department, Tony Shanahan, said that the council would write to the gardaí on the matter.
