Mr. Mark Toland:

I went to most of those meetings. The public was very supportive, and feedback on community policing gardaí was absolutely fantastic, but people have noticed that the number of community gardaí has decreased. Most of the people at the meetings represent areas, organisations and neighbourhood watch groups. These are people in regular contact with the Garda Síochána in a formal environment. They get text alerts and information. They have noticed a reduction in the number of community policing gardaí and this is how they gauged it. This was the case in every meeting we attended. People love their community policing gardaí, but they have noticed that they do not see them. Many people on the outskirts of a district or division said they felt there was not as much visibility of gardaí, which is what the Deputy is speaking about.

We included recommendations in the report, some of which are quite simple. Sometimes police officers walk up and down a street, but unless they knock on a few doors and engage people they are not seen. It could well be that gardaí are out on patrol, but they need to get out of their cars and engage people and let them know they are there. Otherwise, people do not always see them. Sometimes this is unfair because they are out there patrolling. If they are in the police cars driving up and down roads, quite often those in the community do not see them, but if they knock on two or three doors and let people know they are there, and pop into a business and let the business know they are about, it resonates with people. My police officers in London in my last command were quite shy, with their heads down. Part of what we did was to tell them to have their heads up and talk to people. People will remember that engagement, whereas if the police officers walk past them they will not remember it as an engagement. There is something about communication skills and basic people skills, and letting people know they are there.