Challenging times

Last Wednesday eight communities in Clare learned that their local garda stations are to close, while two garda districts are to be downgraded and amalgamated with Ennis and Kilrush.

 

Speaking about the proposals announced by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, Clare’s Chief Superintendent John Kerin acknowledges that the plan will be a challenge.
Chief Supt Kerin believes that the station closures mean, in theory, the physical building will no longer be in the community but it did not mean that communities would be without a policing service.

Following meetings within the Clare Garda Division, Chief Supt Kerin is looking at rolling out a community fora initiative in Clare. He explained that monthly meetings could be held within communities affected by station closures to discuss issues of concern within the community.

“I think if we can work out these fora the public will have increased accessibility to gardaí but that is one of my biggest challenges that I face in that gardaí living in the locality always had an extremely good local knowledge and knew what was going on.

“The gardaí in those areas will still have responsibility for those areas they just won’t be stationed in the particular area. We will be looking at creating particular patrolling zones within those areas where particular gardaí and transport will be allocated for more intensive patrolling than heretofore,” he said.

Chief Supt Kerin added that if gardaí could get access to a local venue, be it a hall or other community building, it would be possible to arrange for a garda to attend for passport stamping and form signing to ensure those local services were not lost.

He stressed that there will be “no change to the response times”.

“The public is concerned about losing their garda stations because they are losing their post offices, their banks etc. All they are losing is the building. If we can get a room in an area we’ll be in the area.

“I generally believe if we get this right and if people set up fora they will have more contact with the gardaí than heretofore. I’ve discussed it here with my management team and they are happy to row in with it.

He added that areas without community alerts would be given every assistance should they wish to set one up.

“If they are set up properly and if people show enough interest they can protect their own communities and I think people can do a lot more that way. It is in everybody’s interest that their community is protected from burglars, travelling criminals and people selling or supplying drugs. It’s not just in our interest so the more active they are in their own communities the safer the communities will be. I guarantee them if they are interested in setting this up we will support them. If they want community alert signs we would be happy to supply them,” he said.

Speaking about the new garda districts, which will see Kilrush operate as the district station for West and North Clare, and Ennis as the district station for East and Mid-Clare Chief Supt Kerin said he didn’t “think it will have any effect” on the general public.

“In the new districts each superintendent will have nine stations now. We had 27 stations in total and that’s now down to 18. The superintendents will be a lot busier than heretofore.

“I already have an inspector based in Killaloe and I’ll leave him there. I’m hoping to get an additional inspector to base him or her in Ennistymon and if that happens there won’t be any significant impact on the management of the division. If it doesn’t happen there is certainly going to be a lot of extra workload.

“A small number of gardaí and civilian personnel will be affected. That’s one of my tasks to sit down with them and explore new opportunities and job roles for them within reason.

“The Croke Park agreement allows them to transfer. We don’t want to inconvenience them and there are plenty of vacancies throughout the division so we should be able to accommodate them,” he said.

He invited any community worried about the proposed closures or interested in discussing setting up of community alerts/fora to make contact with their local superintendent or inspector to arrange a meeting.

“We want to explain to people what is happening and allay their fears,” Chief Supt Kerin concluded.