Garda plan aims to reduce crime by 2%

Reducing overall crime by 2 per cent, increasing detection rates by the same percentage, and increasing the "feeling of public safety" by 10 per cent are among the goals of the Garda Policing Plan for 2008, released yesterday by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan.

The plan prioritises intelligence-led operations against drug, gun and human traffickers and aims for a 5 per cent reduction in incidents of assault and criminal damage, a similar decrease in public disorder and a 15 per cent increase in arrests for such offences.

Community policing could be a beneficiary as divisional boundaries are to be realigned with local authority borders, including a new Meath and Wicklow division. Mr Lenihan said the plan "maps out the key objectives and actions required for the effective policing of our towns, cities and communities, the protection of the security of the State and the ongoing modernisation and development" of the Garda.

In a statement he pointed to the 11 per cent budget increase to more than €1.6 billion for 2008 and said substantial resources had been provided to backup the plan.

In a foreword to the 27-page plan, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said he would "ensure a service that is efficient, effective and that delivers value for money".

The plan "gives effect to many of the recommendations of the various groups currently advising me on management, on leadership, and on administrative and operational effectiveness".

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said, however, that the Government's "solemn promise" to have 14,000 gardaí by the end of 2007 remained unfulfilled and was "essential to the success of the plan".

He welcomed the realignment of Garda divisions with local authority areas and said it would assist with the development of community policing, but the Minister needed to target anti-social behaviour more. "The community garda should be the frontline garda," he said. "We need to have gardaí living in communities and need to incentivise them to live in those communities," such as through accommodation.

Mr Flanagan also called for longer-term contracts, and better promotional opportunities for gardaí in rural and deprived areas because gardaí believed promotion was best achieved in large urban divisions.

There were huge gaps in rural areas where stations had closed down, he said. In large urban areas such as west and south Dublin and Limerick, rapidly expanding communities had no Garda stations and this had contributed to anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Garda Chief Insp Kathleen O'Toole had prioritised community policing and he urged the Minister to fully implement her recommendations.

Labour spokesman Pat Rabbitte said there were "no great radical proposals" in the plan and while he too welcomed the realignment of Garda divisions, he said a target in the plan - that the move of the Dublin south divisional region from Crumlin to Tallaght "be progressed" - was first decided in 1997 when he was in government.

Nothing had happened since and the aim that it would "be progressed" this year could also mean nothing.

He said there was no provision for additional resources for community policing and there would only be seven new juvenile liaison officers appointed, which was a "drop in the ocean" given that it was an effective means for dealing with anti-social behaviour. Youth diversion projects were also an effective tool, which was not being resourced, he said.