Drogheda gardai lead way with new idea
A new Garda initiative, trialed at the Irish maritime festival at the weekend, proved to be an outstanding success.
Local gardai offered parents the chance to take pictures of their children in a special area, indicating their height and other details..
The aim is to improve child safety at public events.
‘ The aim is pretty simple but very effective,’ Supt Andrew Watters stated. ‘Parents take a picture of their child at the event and if they go missing, the picture can be shown to gardai and we then have an immediate description of what they are wearing, their height, eye colour and whatever. It’s a great idea.’
He praised the role of the Community Policing section, under Sgt Donal McGivern, for their time and effort all weekend in introducing the idea to the public.
Many visitors from overseas were highly impressed with the initiative.
Sgt McGivern said that a large number of people availed of the chance to be part of the scheme.
It is hoped such a project can be rolled out at major events to help security arrangements.