Fire could have resulted in five fatalities - Supt
AN arson attack on a family home the previous weekend could have resulted in five fatalities, a senior garda told last week’s meeting of the Dundalk Joint Policing Committee, which took place over Zoom.
Supt Gerry Curley told the meeting that they could have been dealing with ‘five fatalities’ as a result of the weekend arson attack.
He said that drugs were the biggest problem which gardai were facing in the Dundalk District and will be a challenge into the future.
However, he stressed that Gardai were being ‘proactive’ in the fight against the illegal drugs trade with a 69% increase in detections for simple possession at 221 and a 52% increase in detections for drugs for sale or supply at 50, during the first six months of the year
‘We are targetting the main drug people in the town,’ he said. ‘ Some are remanded in custody, awaiting trial, some are out on bail.’
He described them as the people ‘who are causing such harm and destruction in the community and in people’s lives.’
While there is a dedicated drugs unit, which is backed up by the crime unit, it needs to be increased. However, unless they got an allocation of recruits from the Garda College, that would mean taking gardai from the regular frontline.
The crime report for the first six months of the year, revealed that gardai carried out 749 searches under the Misuse of Drugs Act so far this year, as well as 124 searches of houses under warrant.
The most recent crime figures also showed a 35% increase in the number of arson cases from 17 to 23.
Supt Curley said that the most recent incident the previous weekend could have resulted in five fatalities and a full investigation is underway. He also recalled an other arson attack on the home of a garda in Bay Estate, where two adults and two children had escaped without injury, and then the almost tragic
Deputy Ruairi O Murchu called for ‘calm heads’ and a holistic approach to deal with the underlying problems which were fuelling these attacks.
He said that they had been dealing with ‘nuisance level’ burning in Muirhevenamor which had been followed up by the attack on the garda’s home, and then the fire at the weekend which could have had ‘ tragic circumstances.’
Noting that the garda figures showed that there had been 22 threats to kill or cause harm so far this year, he said that a lot of them were connected with drugs.
He added that the gardai had to be commended for the amount of searches and seizures which put serious pressure on drug dealers. However the problem of drug debt intimidation was one which still needs to be addressed and he called for greater resources for helping to combat drug addictions.
Cllr Kevin Meenan also condemned the fire at the weekend and the fire at the guard’s home. He praised the gardai for the work they were doing, noting that he had been stopped by gardai while going through Muirhevnamor where two or three main drug dealers lived.
The issue of anti-social behaviour was also raised by Cllr Edel Corrigan who noted that there had been ‘a massive increase’ in anti-social behaviour, including aggressive behaviour, gatherings and illegal dumping during the lockdown period. She wondered if the restrictions had had an impact on how the gardai worked, particularly in relation to working with the Council’s estate management team.
Chief Supt Christy Managan said gardai had provided a full service during lockdown and as frontline workers, weren’t working from home but were policing on the street.
They had dealt with an increase in anti-social behaviour during what had been ‘a most difficult time for people’ which saw a ‘ lot of people suffering’ as a result of young people looking for ‘entertainment’. He stressed that ensuring that young people didn’t do anything to get into trouble or cause undue grief to people was high on their list of priorities for community policing.
Community and voluntary representative John Temple complained that he had been informed by a residents’ association that calls to the gardai, in one instance to 999, had received no response.
Chief Supt Mangan replied that there had been very few complaints about the work of the gardai during lockdown. He stated that he’d rather be made aware of a breakdown or lack of service immediately rather than later. Supt Gerry Curley said he wasn’t aware of any incidents where the gardai hadn’t responded to calls and was disappointed to be told of the matter so late in the day. He assured the meeting that if any staff were found wanting he would deal with the matter, adding that they had dealt with thousands of calls in the last six months.