‘If I can put someone on the street every day I will’, Longford Local Community Safety Partnership hears

The presence of gardaí on the street comes down to resources and the volume of work that comes into the station on any given day, a meeting of the Longford Local Community Safety Partnership has heard.

Cllr Seamus Butler, noted an increase of garda street patrols in recent weeks but wondered if it was a “resource issue” that prevented gardaí from going on the beat on a daily basis.

“I’ve noticed a big increase in the last week to ten days but through the Joint Policing Committee, we had an agreement that, where at all possible, there would be a daily street presence. Is it a matter of resources that that can’t be achieved?” he asked Superintendent Seamus Boyle.

Supt Boyle explained that it depended on “the volume of work” that came into the garda station on any given day of the week.

“If I can put someone out on the street every day, I will do it,” said Supt Boyle.

“But in all the other roles that we perform on a day to day basis, there are days when we just haven’t got the man power.

“You could come in here on a Monday morning and have people detailed to go out on the beat and find that you have three prisoners in here overnight - one has to go to Athlone court, one has to go to Dóchas, one has to go to Castlerea - and therefore you’re not able to put someone on the streets.

“So it just depends on the volume of work up here. Generally if the community police are working, they will perform a beat up the town but, on occasion, they are tied up doing other work.

“So it is a resource issue. But I would say it depends on the volume of work that comes in here on any given day,” he concluded.