More gardaí should be on patrol in rural areas and communities should install CCTV monitoring, a new report on community policing and rural crime has recommended.

The report, by the Oireachtas committee on justice and equality, said that social isolation in rural areas intensifies the fear of crime and that this has been exacerbated by the closure of many rural Garda stations.

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It recommends that where stations cannot be reopened, this must be compensated for by having more gardaí on patrol in rural areas and more gardaí available at certain times in other public buildings such as community centres.

At present, it said the real extent of rural crime is not accurately known due to the methods of recording and classifying crimes. The committee said that consideration ought to be given to introducing a separate classification for rural crimes.

CCTV

The roll-out of community CCTV schemes is being stymied by a number of factors, the report said.

These factors included the initial startup costs to communities; the complexities and delays in applying for grant schemes; and administrative disputes between An Garda Síochána and local authorities as to whom is responsible for CCTV schemes and for data management.

It recommends that the roll-out of CCTV requires:

  • Greater funding upfront to support communities.
  • A streamlining of the grants application process to make it more user-friendly and efficient.
  • Legislation, if necessary, to clarify which State agencies have what responsibilities in the administering of CCTV schemes and data management.

    • Marking property

    Among its 20 recommendations, the committee in particular recommends the expansion of the recently introduced CESAR marking system.

    This system can be used to trace stolen equipment across Europe through the use of police-held scanners which are connected to a European-wide database.

    It said that it is essential that gardaí are equipped with the additional technology required to utilise this system.

    It also recommends a greater emphasis upon use of social media as a way of increasing garda visibility and maintaining engagement with communities.

    Community policing should be prioritised in terms of allocation of resources and the trend of stations being closed and community gardaí being deployed to other roles needs to be reversed, the report said.

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