Commissioner aware of Kingscourt Garda resource plight

“Keep Kingscourt in mind when resources come available,” was the simple plea by local councillor Clifford Kelly to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

The Fianna Fáil representative was addressing the recent meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, having earlier informed Comm Harris of a situation where gardaí from Kells were dispatched to an incident that occurred just outside the east Cavan town.

Lamenting the loss of manpower at the local station, now staffed just by two officers, Cllr Kelly outlined the uniqueness of the area, which shares a hinterland with counties Meath and Monaghan.

He said of the specific situation, when a family had a car and jeep stolen, they rang to report the theft to Kingscourt station but “no one could come”.

Instead, the incident was responded to by officers stationed almost 24 kilometres away.

“The gardaí stationed two and a half miles away didn’t respond,” he scorned.

He continued by stating that, not too long ago, Kingscourt had five gardaí and one sergeant stationed there.

“It has a population touching on 4,000, a large hinterland, and there are many problems arising. We’re 50 miles from the centre of O’Connell Street in Dublin and access to Kingscourt with the motorway to Navan leaves it very easy for criminals to get there,” he told the meeting.

“It seems that we’re being neglected in this area,” said Cllr Kelly.

He further expressed his reservations at the revelation that Bailieborough station had lost five members from its ranks to join the newly established Armed Support Unit training programme. “That worries me if this area are to lose out and they’re not being replaced.”

Responding to Cllr Kelly’s comments, Comm Harris said he was aware of the geographical policing conundrum thrown up by Kingscourt and its location.

He stated that such an issue could be solved both by the new restructuring of the force to larger districts and by greater investment to link in with a regional control room.

“This would involve the GPS tracking of vehicles and where they are located across the division at a specific time,” explained Comm Harris. “So whenever we have a crime in action, the county lines, divisional lines, they should not count. What we’re looking for is who is in a position to respond fast. We do have an awareness of that and we are building that into our procedures as part of a regional control room.”

He went on to state, under questioning from JPC meeting chair, Fianna Fail’s John Paul Feeley, that investment was coming.

The regional control room is currently based in Galway but investment is needed to ensure the required systems are in place for improving and better managing policing response.

“Really the next stage of that is to further develop our command control system and also the various IT support there is for members,” said Comm Harris. “That includes the provision of an investigation management system, and also mobility devices - the hand-held mobile phone devices that allow members to communicate, receive information, but also provide location information too.”