“Community policing is a very important and effective tool in fighting the misery and disruption wreaked across communities by the destructiveness of antisocial behaviour. Antisocial behaviour is anti community and action is required on a number of fronts,” Councillor Dermot Lacey has said.<\/p>\n
\n“Antisocial behaviour is not just problem for large urban areas, it is just as much an issue in small towns. Antisocial behaviour is more than a crime against an individual – its effects have a devastating effect on communities. As a public representative, people have come to me with stories of victimisation, bullying, intimidation, terror and fear. We have to do more to protect our communities from this scourge.<\/p>\n
“We need community Gardai who work in communities long enough to be familiar with local circumstances and who are accountable to their local communities. We need more effective community based sanctions and better youth facilities. More resources must be allocated to the Garda Juvenile Liaison Scheme, which has proved to work very well. However, only 86 Gardai and eight sergeants operate the system throughout the whole country. Compare this with the 73 Gardai who are attached to the ministerial driving pool.<\/p>\n
“It is clear that we need new mechanisms to deal with antisocial behaviour, we need real answers which offer relief to individuals and communities which are suffering now. The Labour Party recently launched a document ‘Taking Back the Neighbourhood: A strategy for tackling anti-social behaviour’. This outlines the scale of the problem being faced in many areas and sets out a set of proposals designed to stop the tiny minority who are making the lives of ordinary families and whole communities made miserable.”<\/p>\n
More details on Labour’s proposals on antisocial behaviour can be found at the link below.<\/p>\n