Dublin TD says reduced Community Garda prescence ‘an abandonment of our community’

Padraig Conlon 21 Sep 2020

A Dublin TD has blasted Garda Commisioner Drew Harris over his decision to put Community Gardai on a reduced roster meaning they only work until 7pm.

Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West Mark Ward has described information he received revealing that since March Community Garda have been on a “contingency roster” as “an abandonment of our community.”

This means the community policing unit has only working been working up to 7pm each evening since the start of the Covid pandemic.

“Over the last couple of months, I have noticed an increase in anti-social behaviour and other illegal activity not just in my area of Dublin Mid-West but right across Dublin,” Deputy Ward said.

“Our communities are under nightly attacks by the misuse of fireworks.

“We have elderly residents afraid to leave their homes, shop keepers fearful for their customers and staff.

“We have seen an increase in open drug dealing and anti-social behaviour and it has an impact on how safe our communities feel for residents.

“Information I received from Dublin Bus shows an increase of bus curtailments due to anti-social behaviour.

“In fact, there has been a 200% increase on the number of incidents that bus drivers  had to stop their journey  because of attacks with fireworks and other missiles.”

Deputy Ward said the issue with Community Gardai needs to be addressed quickly.

“There is a real sense of fear and abandonment in our communities and residents reported a lack of police presence in our areas particularly at night-time,” he said.

“Some Sinn Féin colleagues and I have been looking into this lack of community garda presence at night-time and what we discovered is quite shocking

“Since Covid started in March Community Garda have been on a “contingency roster” introduced by the commissioner Drew Harris.

“This has meant that community policing unit was only working to 7pm each evening.

“So basically, since March no Community Guards have operated after 7pm each night.

“You do not have to be a rocket scientist to attribute the increase in illegal activity in our areas to a decrease in policing presence.

“This decision to reduce the night time hours that Community Guards work was a national decision and does not only impact Dublin but the whole country

“Our communities have been abandoned by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens.

“This contingency roster introduced by the Commissioner has had a direct impact on community safety.

“Community Guards are frustrated and feel that they cannot carry out their duties.

“Community Guards in Dublin have  already seen their numbers decimated from 508 in 2010  to 278 in 2020.

“This manifested itself at the weekend when it took Guards 5 hours to react to an open air party in Oliver Bond  that had open drug use and went against all public health advice.

“I would like to know why this decision was made, what consultation did Drew Harris carry out with other community stakeholders and how long are our communities going to be abandoned?”

 

 

 

 

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