I wrote a piece for journal.ie recently.
www.thejournal.ie/readme/gardai-community-policing-2534277-jan2016/
I have been surprised on two levels really with the outcome of the article. Firstly it has received in excess of 50,000 hits and has been shared over two thousand times on Facebook. It has also led to an appearance on local radio during the week and an invitation to appear on the Marian Finucane Show at the weekend.
The other surprise has been the overwhelming number of messages of support that I have received from across the country from serving gardai and members of the public.
I have been advised that some senior garda officers are less than pleased with the piece which is something I find difficult to understand. Most of what I said has already been highlighted by the Garda Inspectorate and I would have thought that senior officers would welcome a change in the system that would allow them to be free to speak their mind.
Thanks to all of you for your messages, shares and comments.
Now you’ve started keep going. Don’t back down. Honest piece of journalism. I knew there would be some disgruntled officers.
I think Trevor’s journalistic skills are brilliant, well written, truthful and sometimes very humourous, I hope you progress to greater heights Trevor and keep giving the public the stories that they like to read ( and hear on Radio )
Trevor compiles some very truthful and at times very humourous articles, a lot of thought seems to be put into them. If the truth hurts some people in high places Trevor then perhaps those people have things to hide. Keep up the good reports, I can already imagine you on RTE
Trevor, I just read your Journal piece – its great – well done and congratulations for putting it out there. What hope do we have to promote integration and reduce radicalisation without strong community policing? It must be so frustrating so see the good work go to waste. Especially when there is so much evidence that it works – have you seen about the Aarhus Model they are using in Denmark for young people thinking of going or having returned from fighting in Syria? http://www.enargywebzine.eu/spip.php?article395 and http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33344898.
Hi Mella, I haven’t seen it but I’ll take a look.
Trevor – its amazing what they’re doing with the Aarhus Model in Scandanavia and really supports the case for re-building community policing here and seriously investing in it. It was developed in Denmark’s second city of Aarhus after the 7/7 bombings in London heightened fears across Europe of ‘home grown bomber/s’. The model aims to build trust between authorities and minority communities, creating the opportunity for young people who’ve been radicalised to find a way back into society. By building relationships with minority communities, and supporting family networks, contact is made with radicalised youth, and jihadi circles weakened. The young people who are considering joining Jihadi fighters or have returned from fighting in Syria or elsewhere are given the opportunity to go and meet with police. They are assigned a mentor and are listened to and given psychological support if they need / want it. There are legal consequences depending on what they have done. An incredible thing about the model is that apart from the social re-integration piece, it is a really effective method of intelligence gathering – and apparently security services in countries like the UK have been calling for it, because of the high value intelligence it is yielding!
Hi Mella. I’ve been doing a little reading up on this project and it certainly seems to have some merit. I must have a chat with John O’Connor about it.