Rise in gardai on Limerick streets brings about cut in ‘petty crime’

A LIMERICK trader has praised the increase in gardai on city centre streets, adding “petty crime” has dropped in the last few weeks.

Shane Gleeson, whose family run a number of Spar shops across the city, was reflecting the views of other members of the traders association.

They shared their experience with gardai’s top brass at a meeting last month in the Engine building, reporting, among other things, that staff were afraid to take out bins due to the threat of encountering drug addicts, dealers and beggars.

In the wake of that meeting, Superintendent Andrew Lacey, Henry Street garda station, put in place a 10-point plan to tackle anti-social behaviour in the city centre.

This includes a “targeted approach to aggressive begging”, while offering overtime hours for garda members to patrol the city centre.

And Mr Gleeson said the early signs are good.

“We have seen a dramatic reduction in petty crime. The amount of intimidation we are getting at the tills has virtually vanished with the gardai on the streets,” he explained.

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The atmosphere of the city centre, he added, has moved to become “very friendly and jovial,” he reported.

“The garda van which was on Thomas Street has had a dramatic effect. They were stopping and searching people, and the people who they were stopping and searching were the ones causing us trouble. As a result, these people largely avoid the street now the gardai are present,” the businessman added.

Mr Gleeson said up until a few weeks ago, things were very different.

“Before, we saw open drug-taking in the street, we’ve seen aggressive begging – to the point of intimidation. That’s dramatically scaled back now the gardai are on the street. Instead of watching your front door waiting for the bad guys to come in, we can concentrate on looking after our customers and running our business. It allows you to work properly instead of looking over your shoulder all the time,” he added.

Supt Lacey said: “We are committed to putting traditional resources into the city centre. There is a lot of footfall, businesses have been in touch with us. The feedback has been really good. We need to build on this going into the latter part of the summer.”

Mayor John Moran has welcomed reports of a reduction in anti-social behaviour in the city centre.

He was also present at the traders meeting last month in the Engine building.

He said: “I want to commend the gardai for the openness to work with us. I’ve also committed that in respect of the needs they have for different resources, they would be high on the list of items I will be raising with ministers. What is clear is you won’t meet the expectations of the traders and the people who voted for me unless we have more resources in Limerick to support them. It’s an important message to continue highlighting.”