Mr. Pat Leahy:

In terms of the actual structure that is proposed - we will go back to what we talked about earlier in terms of the use of technology - we are proposing that every division will have a community support office or divisional community policing office that will be contactable by any means. They will be the orchestrators of community policing in the sense that every division and district in the country will be broken down and mapped so that somebody owns every segment of it. In a rural area a person may be required to have a bicycle or a car and additional resources are required for that, but he or she will own a particular area as an individual and will be held accountable and responsible for that, but people will also be part of a broader team for a wider area. We can call it a sector or whatever else is agreed. Every part of the country should be covered by the community policing initiative. People will know who their community garda is, but he or she will be part of a team so even if he or she has a day off, somebody on the team will pick up the slack.

Deputy Wallace referred to resources. In a rural area where the community policing area could be 25 sq. km, a vehicle will be required and we will include that in the cost of introducing a community policing model that has a proper structure and that the practices we employ are effective. That is an example of some of the structures that will be put in place and potentially relates to the 80% of non-crime issues we normally deal with. It is not emergency response but relates to problem solving in communities and it must happen day in and day out. It is not a question of having days of action, it is a constant approach to engaging with communities, determining what the needs are and developing unique responses to them.

The concept of community has changed considerably in the past two or three decades and people are operating almost like customers. People come together as a community but they also come separately. One has to get beyond the broad brushstroke of community and have a unique response to the customer base that is out there, for example, Mrs. Leahy and Mrs. Murphy who have a very different requirement to the group. It is not an easy task but I am prepared to come back to the committee at some stage and go into the challenges associated with community policing and give an indication of how it has been implemented elsewhere, what failures have been encountered, and the challenges presented. It changes the nature of the game for policing. Generally, we all operate to a traditional command-and-control response system. Despite the fact that we have had real successes with community policing, we have not had a national model. In 2015, we were given an award for European best practice in community policing. We were also nominated that years as one of three areas in Europe for the European public sector excellence award in community policing. We have an understanding and knowledge of how to introduce community policing in a microcosm but it is a challenge to do it on a national scale where one delivers a consistent approach to delivering a community-oriented policing service.