COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF JOINT POLICING COMMITTEE

Friday, April 11, 2008

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: Councillor P. Rabbitte, TD

To ask the Garda Superintendent to detail the community policing allocation for the Brookview area; the area and population covered by the Community Gardai concerned; and if he will say what steps he proposes to take to deal with the worsening anti-social behaviour and misuse of drugs in the area.

REPLY:

The Brookview area of West Tallaght has an allocation of two Community Gardaí. There is also a full time Juvenile Liaison Officer to cover Fettercairn/Brookview.

Community Gardai carry out their duties on mountain cycle patrols and have the responsibility to ensure contact with all issues relating to the area, particularly crime black spots, drugs or antisocial behaviour and in turn brief the Superintendent to redeploy where more intensive policing is required until problems are resolved.

The population of Brookview which is assigned to two Community Gardaí takes in Brookview itself, McUilliam, Ardmore, Fortunestown, Verschoyle, Corbally and Citywest.

In the Brookview estate there are 448 houses with population of 817 residents. The Fortunestown estate has 42 houses and 90 residents with Ardmore estate having 285 houses and 405 residents and McUilliam estate has  322 houses and 461 residents.

In the last six months there were three detections for sale of drugs and 14 seizures for possession of drugs.

Since 01/01/2008 - 9 public order incidents have been reported in this area, five of these were domestic related incidents in homes in the area, three relate to intoxication in a public place and one relates to an incident with a stolen vehicle.

All of the Gardai attached to Tallaght Garda Station and specialised units such as the Public Order units, Anvil patrols and burglary patrols including beat Garda and mountain cycle Garda concentrate and deal with all aspects of policing in the area of Brookview especially in the prevention and detection of all crime and anti-social behaviour.

Each area in Tallaght is evaluated during daily meetings with all supervisors who discuss critical concerns in the areas and redeployment of members to deal with any problems which arise.

The Brookview area is now targeted to deal with the concerns of the community and will be evaluated on a month to month basis to ensure community safety in the area.