Garda crackdown on antisocial behaviour deemed a succcess

The successful garda crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Carlingford at weekends and over bank holidays was praised by Michael Muckian of the Cooley Community Alert at the recent public meeting of the Dundalk Joint Policing Committee in Blackrock.

He said locals were very appreciative of the extra support they got in the past year.

He also praised the work which Gda Kevin Cleary did in the community, especially his

regular visits to elderly people on the peninsula.

So far 234 panic buttons had been provided for elderly people in Cooley free of charge.

He also sought assurances that as the crime figures have dropped in Carlingford, that garda resources wouldn’t be taken away.

Supt Gerry Curley expressed thanks for the positive comment. He said that while they didn’t pull resources from anywhere else to police the area, it was stressful on the budget. He knew that the issue had required the resources to be put in and it had worked.

He also gave reassurances that the gardai would continue to target boy racers, focussing on the Edentubber area and the plan was to keep this going.

Garda checkpoints were being put in place along the border at Omeath, Dromad and Hackballscross in a bid to thwart cross border crime. He noted that in 2015, there were almost twice as many break-ins as there are now.

In response to queries regarding Brexit, he said that while it had been put off, he hoped that they would get extra resources in the case of it coming to pass.

Cllr Antoin Watters said there was a great relationship between the Cooley Community Alert and the gardai. He welcomed the work being done by the gardai in relation to boy racers and said that they needed to look at the resources being put into tackling cross border crime, especially burglaries of elderly people’s homes.