AMONG the specialised gardai working out of Dun Laoghaire Garda station are two juvenile liaison officers whose job, put simply, is to keep young criminals out of jail.
Garda Frances Ferris and Garda Eddie Boland are among the six officers in DMA East engaged full time on the Juvenile Liaison Scheme.
Founded in 1963 but revamped in 1991, the programme offers offenders under the age of 18 a deal submit to the supervision of a JLO, keep your slate clean from now on and avoid acquiring the criminal record which may blight your chances for the rest of your life.
Like the community gardai, the JLOs visit primary schools and maintain regular contact with youth clubs and youth projects in their areas, frying to steer young people clear of crime.
But a large part of their work involves those who have taken their first steps towards a crime but are not beyond being redirected. Last year, no fewer than 13,000 young offenders throughout the State availed of the scheme, of which 730 came from the DMA East division.
There is no bar on the type of crimes which can be considered for this reprieve. There have been no murder cases, for example, but it is in the power of the DPP to refer murderers to the scheme if he thinks it appropriate. Serious offences such as sexual assault and robbery have been included, and a small number or participants, between 3 and 5 per cent, are drug offenders.
The assent of the victim of any crime, while desirable, is no longer necessary. In the case of many of the sexual assault cases, the victim is a young person and the parents may prefer not to go to court.
The supervision of the JLO is relatively informal it is not like a sentence to community service. After the offender is cautioned, the officer will simply keep in regular contact with both him and his family for as long as is deemed necessary.
Like all systems which aim at an alternative to punishment, the scheme has its critics. But its record is a good one only 11 per cent of participants re offend while under supervision, although what happens them after they reach 18 is not at the moment documented.
Few if any of those chosen could be called hardened criminals, and many of the offences arise from teenage bravado or adolescent peer pressure, according to the scheme's director, Insp David Roche.
"So much policing is fire brigade work, but this is a long term effort and we think it's worthwhile", he says. "At this stage, we'll try everything we possibly can to keep young people out of a life of crime."