Kerry councillor calls for more Gardaí in north of county – ‘people don’t feel as safe today’

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has called for more Gardaí on the streets as he believes relations between law enforcement and locals is becoming increasingly distant.

The Listowel branch of Kerry’s garda division has only had four new recruits since 2020, while Killarney and Tralee have had 14 and 13 respectively.

Councillor Tom Barry acknowledges that Listowel is a small town, having under a fifth of the population of Tralee, but argues that the sheer size of the area is stretching law enforcement thinly.

“People don’t feel as safe today as they did five years ago,” said Cllr Barry, “I know that as a fact because people tell me.”

“I’m not portraying Listowel as a dangerous town, it’s no worse than any other town in Ireland but times are changing.

“The recruitment figures are not surprising because it’s very, very obvious to me the lack of gardaí on the streets of Listowel compared to previous years.

“When I was younger, you always had the gardaí on foot patrol. Nearly every day of the week you’d meet a garda walking around Listowel. You don’t now, it’s actually a rarity to see a garda on the beat.”

Each Garda Division has Community Garda Units which are teams focused on building strong local ties and preventing crime through partnership with the community. Gardaí are assigned to select neighbourhoods with the goal of being visible and accessible to local people.

However, while there are currently two community gardaí in Tralee and one in Killarney, there are zero in Listowel.

Cllr Barry said he has always been a “big advocate” for a community garda and thought the system worked “brilliantly”.

“He’d walk into an estate, he’d even walk into business premises, if he saw some people in the street he’d stop and have a talk,” said Cllr Barry

“At one time in Listowel the community gardaí knew virtually everybody on first name terms. He knew who you were, what family you were from and where you lived. You had that mutual respect.

“I think when you don’t have that garda presence on the street, you’re losing that personal connection. I feel it’s led to a total lack of respect for the garda from people and the only way you’re going to get that back is through community engagement.”

Cllr Barry recalls the annual soccer tournament played by local kids against a team made up of Listowel gardaí. He said this built a “great comradery” between the town’s youth and law enforcement, with the kids nowing gardaí by their first name.

He praised the Community Text Alert system, which enables communities to set up group alerts advising them of suspicious or criminal activity in their area, while also allowing community members to report suspicious activity to the Gardaí.

He said it was a “valuable asset” but believes it’s not a replacement from garda on the street.

“The community gardai were the biggest loss to the area. They gave people that sense of comfort and you knew they weren’t too far away,” said Cllr Barry.

“It’s great and people are using it but it’s not going to replace gardai on the ground. All we’re doing is putting stop gaps in place. We need to go back where we were. We need to get our garda numbers up. We need to get gardaí on the street.”

CCTV for Listowel has also been at the forefront of Cllr Barry’s interests having advocated for it at council meetings numerous times.

While Tralee and Killarney both have CCTV systems installed and maintained by the council, Listowel lags behind. Areas such as civic amenity sites, social housing estates and public spaces remain unmonitored.

At the most recent Listowel Municipal District meeting, the council said An Garda Síochána were reviewing their Code of Practice before any meeting with the local authority on the matter could take place.

Any new Community CCTV scheme would have to be developed and operated in line with this new code of practice, they said, which will set out the requirements in relation to new CCTV schemes.

Cllr Barry said that Listowel Gardaí are “110 per cent” supportive of a new CCTV system and have committed to taking charge of storage and reviewing any issues that arise once the rollout is complete.

With local support, he’s asking Kerry County Council to be ready to apply for the funding as soon as the Code of Practice is cleared.

“CCTV is equally as important as the number of Gardaí on the streets,” said Cllr Barry

“They need it to gather evidence, and it’s been proven all over the county previously in major crimes, even murder cases.

“The one thing I’m determined to do before I walk away from politics is a CCTV system in Listowel because its vital, along with the increase in Garda funding.”