Calls for more garda resources including middle-ranking gardai to be made available following Kill Crime Prevention Meeting

(Pictured: Inspector Oliver Henry and members of Naas Garda Station with Michael Corcoran, Chair of Kill Community Alert Scheme at last Tuesday's public meeting on crime prevention in Kill)

By Kim O'Leary

Following a recent meeting on crime prevention in the village of Kill, local councillors, TDs and members of An Garda Siochana as well as the Kill Community Alert Group are appealing for more resources to be made available to gardai to investigate crimes.

Local TD James Lawless paid tribute to the Kill Community Alert Group and to the Gardai that presented at the meeting, Inspector Henry and Sergeant Doherty, at the public meeting on crime prevention in Kill which took place on Tuesday 14 August, last.

According to Fine Gael Cllr Fintan Brett who was in attendance, he said that gardai have confirmed that they were called to 5 incidents rather than an initially reported 17 or 18 in the area of Kill. “There were actually 5 break-ins rather than the 17 or 18 that was said on social media, that was incorrect and it was leading to some confusion and a sense of panic in the area. The suspects for 2 robberies have been identified by garda and they will be prosecuted as a result,” said Cllr Brett.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fail TD James Lawless described the presentations on home security and general policing in the area to be ‘very informative.’

He said: “The Gardai and the local community are doing their very best with scarce resources. I personally believe it was a mistake by the government to close over 100 stations at the stroke of a pen in 2013. Five of those stations were in the Kildare and West Wicklow area which has been left exposed since. The total savings across all 100 plus stations only amounted to €2.5 million which is a drop in the ocean of the Justice budget.”

Amidst calls for more gardai to be provided for Kill and its surrounding areas, Cllr Brett has said that Templemore has supplied Kildare with 356 more gardai (5/10 gardai from each batch of those who pass through Templemore) and it is hoped that it will reach the optimum number of 420 gardai in the next few years which is said to be the average number of gardai required for a county. “From what I can see, the problem is with training the gardai as they need experience middle-ranking gardai to oversee the training of new members,” he said.

Cllr Brett also proposed for CCTV to be installed in the Kill area to help catch burglars in the area. “There was a good debate about CCTV for the area, I suggested we install LPD which would cost €50,000 per year so €100,000 for two years. But there is an ongoing-issue concerning data protection although I would like to see it installed as it has an excellent zooming tool which would help to easily identify suspects.”

Speaking to KildareNow, Deputy Lawless reminded that Kildare still only has 1 Garda per 680 people in the county, as compared to the national ratio 1:450, with no signs of any garda stations in Co Kildare being listed to re-open.

In addition, Deputy Lawless is also calling for a review of jurisdiction boundaries so that gardai can investigate incidents closest to them without being restricted by boundaries. He has previously made this case to Minister Flanagan in the Dail to allow for more district overlaps. “The Bail laws also need to be greatly strengthened, we are all sick of the revolving door where multiple repeat offenders come out of court and do it all again. Fianna Fáil have introduced legislation to tighten this but it is opposed by government. The presumption of innocence is an important constitutional principle but so is protection of the home and the person and a balance must be struck,” said Deputy Lawless.

“We have improved slightly in recent years but we are still toward the bottom of the national league table in terms of Garda numbers. We need a big boost to recover from the low point we reached. The government need to invest in Kildare in every sense and stop us being the forgotten county,” concluded Deputy Lawless.