Gardaí develop community policing

Members of the Cavan Joint Policing Committee were given an overview of the work undertaken by the Cavan Community Engagement Unit (CEU) at a recent meeting. Overseen by Inspector Ann-Marie Lardner, the CEUs have undertaken a number of initiatives since first established in May of last year.

The Cavan CEU comprises of two dedicated community engagement units in Cavan covering each of the two Garda Districts: Cavan and Bailieborough.

Insp Lardner said the establishment of the dedicated community policing unit provides a framework for enhanced delivery of service to local communities, where duties will exclusively focus on improving the quality of life of people, reflective of their needs and priorities.

This divisional policing initiative is centred on working in partnership with the community to keep people safe, particularly the most vulnerable, hard to reach groups and those in the youth demographic.

Prior to the presentation, Chief Superintendent Alan McGovern thanked the JPC and the CEO of Cavan County Council, Tommy Ryan, for the support received so in establishing the CEUs.

Insp Lardner's presentation focused on the work of the Cavan and Bailieborough units. Among the initiatives the CEUs have engaged in are schools programmes, food bank and medical prescription drops, business watch, campus watch and engaging with community alert groups.

Community patrols

Regular community patrols have been conducted providing reassurance and support to the public. The visiting of community retirement homes is also part of the CEUs.

A Divisional Community Engagement event in December last took place over two days. Participants met with vulnerable members of the community and presented them with Christmas card and selection box. The initiative was supported by SuperValu.

Other activities included the dissemination of crime prevention advice, community clinics, beat and mobile patrols, and water safety campaigns.

Interacting with young people through the Cavan 365 Garda youth diversion project, transition year programmes and Youthreach are a vital component of the CEU.

Insp Lardner referenced the work the unit undertakes with Tidy Towns as another example of community outreach, while property marking events also bolster this role.

Suicide response

The Community Engagement Unit team are active as part of a co-ordinated suicide response team.

The inspector said the presentation was a small snippet of the the work and what is going to be rolled out in the coming year.

Chair of the JPC, Cllr John Paul Feeley (FF), commended the unit on their workload: “I have to acknowledge the huge amount of work going on. When you see it all put together, you realise the enormous efforts made by the unit for communities across Cavan.”

Senator Joe O'Reilly (FG) said Insp Lardner's presentation emphasised the importance of community engagement: “This is great way for local community members to identify and get to know their local guard. It is great to see a local person working with local communities.”

Vanessa Clarke of Muintir na Tíre, the national voluntary organisation dedicated to promoting the process of community development, said that it is great to see the reactivation of Community Watch schemes post pandemic: “It is vital that communities are getting back to meeting again. I know the Gardaí play a crucially important role in Community Watch. The CEUs work shows people see how the community engage process works.”

Deputy Brendan Smith (FF) said garda presence was “very reassuring at different periods of lockdown” for vulnerable members of the community: “The presence of gardaí gave a sense of reassurance, particularly for the elderly. Getting to know each other generates the sense of trust between garda and people that is mutually beneficial.”

His party colleague Deputy Niamh Smyth spoke of the sense of protection communities derive from a visable Garda presence: “The CEU complement programmes like those run through schools. There is a problem with online safety. It will take the collective efforts of everyone in society to solve this problem.”

Deputy Smyth said that the community alert initiatve also provides the public with a chance to interact with gardaí.

Chief Supt McGovern thanked Insp Lardner for her work in driving the initiative, as well as Inspector Nial McKiernan and Superintendent Padraic Jones for their input.

“This is what community engagement's about. We have had so many wonderful initiatives as part of this scheme. To say I was humbled meeting the children of the Holy Family School was an understatement. I know they appreciated the carol singing by our community gardaí.

"We have also seen several times the power of younger people in society, they have helped and taken responsibility for older members of society at senior citizen homes.”