WATCH: Limerick gardaí appoint three community policing sergeants to tackle city issues

GARDAÍ in Henry Street have appointed three new community policing sergeants across the Limerick city and north side areas to deal with prevalent issues.

These appointments include: Sergeant Rosaleen O'Connor, community policing at Henry Street focusing on the schools programme, equality diversity & inclusion division; Sergeant Michael Gallagher, community policing at Mayorstone garda station covering north side estates and the Historical Quarter; and Sergeant Aoife Bannon, Henry Street for harm reduction in the city centre and 3rd level liaison.

These latest appointments, which include specific portfolios within the community policing remit, are a "necessary component of modern day policing", say An Garda Síochána.

Included in the announcement is the implementation of the city's first harm reduction strategy. This is said to involve regular communication with the city traders, vintners, local authority and outreach to support services that are active in the city dealing with the homelessness and addiction issues that are prevalent.

"This is an example of the innovation present in the Limerick division and something we are extremely proud of," said Superintendent Andrew Lacey. 

He added: "We acknowledge that there is a lot of challenges facing us but it’s all about making progress and helping Limerick become a safe place for inhabitants and a place where everyone want to visit."

Other appointment portfolios involve engagement with residential areas who experience high levels of anti-social behaviour and criminality.

At the announcement, Superintendent Lacey said: "It just shows some of the proactive things we have going on here in the division and with some more other initiatives and pilots coming in the future, which are kind of exciting for the division and for ourselves.

"In terms of the community policing positions, we've been waiting about a year to have those in place." 

This Tuesday also marked the launch of the dedicated Limerick garda social media platforms which were sought after for some time.

The city is said to have a student population of over 50,000 and hosts a vibrant international community. As a result, across the city, gardaí have agreed needing to reach all cohorts "quicker" by providing messaging around public safety, road safety, crime prevention along with information pertaining to events across the new online platforms.

Sergeant Aoife Bannon, a garda for eight years in total with two served in Limerick, said: "This is something I'm really interested in and I [have been] really trying to push it for updates about upcoming events going on in the city and just to see the work that the gardaí here in Limerick are doing every day."

She added: "You can find us on Facebook as An Garda Síochána Limerick and on Instagram as GardaInsta_Limerick."