New community safety forums for city inch closer to operation

Local community safety partnerships (LCSPs) are one step closer to launch, after last week's monthly meeting of Dublin City Council.

At the meeting, councillors agreed which of them would be nominated to sit on each of the LCSPs for the five administrative areas of the city – nominations that now need ministerial sign-off.

These LCSPs are designed to be the main forums for councillors, senior gardaí, and a range of others to talk about how to make the city safer.

They’re meant to replace and improve upon the old joint policing committees (JPCs) by bringing in a broader group of stakeholders.

At their October monthly meeting, several Dublin city councillors voiced irritation at how the plan to stand up these new LCSPs is being put into action.

Like, why are only some councillors allowed on the LCSPs, when they were all allowed on the old JPCs, which they replace. 

Only seven councillors are allowed on each of the LCSPs, but each of the five administrative areas has more councillors than that – the North Central Area has the most, with 17.

Independent Councillor Cieran Perry said that limitation was “ridiculous”.

As many elected representatives as possible should be encouraged to get involved when it’s an issue as serious, and timely, as making the city safer, he says.  

Fianna Fáil Councillor Daryl Barron said the limitation was anti-democratic. 

“I think it's a defiance against democracy when we reduce the number of councillors allowed to speak in front of any committee, and I think it's something that's not good enough,” he said.

Yes, there’ll only be seven councillors on each LCSP, a Department of Justice spokesperson said Thursday by email. But all the others can get involved too, by meeting with those select few, they said. 

“All elected representatives will also have further opportunities to engage with their safety partnership,” the spokesperson said. 

“This includes provision, in regulation, for a closed meeting for members of the Oireachtas and local authority to meet with members of the Safety Partnership to discuss issues relating to community safety.”  

Background

Approaches to community safety in local areas used to be guided by the joint policing committees (JPCs), which were first set up about two decades ago.

Councillors, senior gardaí, TDs, and community stakeholders, would meet to consult and discuss issues around crime and policing in their neighbourhoods.

They could discuss, say, local crime statistics, significant arrests, and ongoing operations – or how  policing Halloween night had gone and what lessons had been learnt.

These committees could make recommendations to An Garda Síochána on moves to enhance public safety or reduce crime.

But the Report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland suggested that community safety needs a multi-agency cooperative approach, involving An Garda Síochána and communities.

That was a driver of the current changes, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, a Fianna Fáil TD, said in July.

LCSPs were meant to replace and build on the work of the JPCs by involving a wider range of stakeholders – like the HSE, Tusla, youth groups, business and education representatives, and minority groups, he said.

The Department of Justice funded three pilots to test the LCSP proposals, including in Dublin’s north inner-city. An evaluation for Dublin found that members of the new group felt it had succeeded in improving relationships between different agencies and organisations.

But only 12 percent agreed with the statement “the LCSP has improved how safe the local community is”.

Despite concerns raised in March 2024 by councillors involved in the north inner-city pilot, the department announced that it was rolling out that model nationwide.

But there has been no “lessons-learned exercise” for the pilot, says Horner.

“That’s, again, on the department. They’ve made a complete mess of it,” she says. “It is insulting to all of us who put time and energy into that model. But that is what it is and it is just deeply frustrating.”

On 30 June, O’Callaghan signed the new regulations paving the way for 36 LCSPs around the country.

JPCs had been stood down long before that, though, while LCSPs aren’t quite up and running yet – except for Wexford, which held its first meeting on 20 September, the Justice Department spokesperson said.

“It was an absolute shambles to stop one set before the next set were properly in play, a real shambles,” said Fingal’s mayor, Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh, in April.

“It's like stopping the bus service before you’ve got a train between two areas,” he said.

Frustration

At last week’s Dublin City Council meeting, Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey welcomed a nomination to be an LCSP member for the South East Area.

But he lamented that nine other area councillors, who had been JPC members, would be left out.

Even while elected councillors are being left out, representatives of agencies like the HSE, Tusla and An Garda Síochána will get seats. 

“A number of statutory agencies, which are already unaccountable to the public, are being given an equal status to elected representatives,” said Lacey.

There is no way that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice would allow gardaí to sit on that committee as equal partners, he said.

“We should put on record our objection to the fact that local government is once again under attack, and the community safety needs of the people of Dublin are under attack by this civil-service inspired move against it,” Lacey said.

Said Perry, the independent councillor: “I think we all acknowledge we are in a crisis in the anti-social behaviour in our communities. So, what we had here was an over subscription and more nominees than places.

“And I think it's absolutely disgraceful that some really important, active councillors have to take a step back from that,” he said.

How will those who don’t sit on the partnership know what happens at meetings? asked Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll.

The committees don’t have to report to the council, said Eileen Quinlivan, the council’s deputy chief executive. But they would provide updates through local area committees anyway, she said. 

Barron, a Fianna Fáil councillor who chairs the 17-councillor North Central Area Committee, asked if there was a loophole to get seats for more local representatives. 

Couldn’t chairs of the LCSPs nominate more people? he said.

The Minister for Justice makes all the appointments, said Quinlivan. As far as she knows, there’s no local discretion, she says.

Citywide coordination

That there will be no city-wide committee – as there was under the previous JPC system – is also a problem, said Lacey, the Labour councillor.

Legislation allows only for the five LCSPs, one for each of Dublin City Council’s administrative areas.

This will be an issue if another major incident erupts like the Dublin riot of November 2023, he says.

Yes, “policing, emergency services, and community initiatives often operate across multiple administrative areas”, said the spokesperson for the Department of Justice on Thursday.

So the guidance put together by the National Office for Community Safety, which oversees the LCSPs, “encourages Safety Partnerships to actively engage and collaborate with neighbouring partnerships to share information, align approaches, and coordinate responses”, she said.

Also, the office “intend to establish networks for Local Community Safety Partnership Chairs, Coordinators and members, to share examples of best practice, provide opportunities for collaboration, and request support for emergent issues”.

Access to gardaí

Outside of new partnerships, members of the council need to have regular meetings with gardaí in alternative forums, says Janet Horner, of the Green Party.

There is currently no structure legislated for that facilitates this, she said at last week's meeting.

In her experience, from the north inner-city pilot partnership, far more is achieved and actioned by councillors talking directly to gardaí, than from meetings with 20 or 30 voices, she said by phone on Thursday.

“It is incumbent on us as a council to maintain that. It is essential for the safety of the city and to look beyond the limitations of the community safety partnership model – which does not facilitate proper engagement of that type,” said Horner.

While LCSPs are good for getting broad statistics and figures from gardaí, they are less effective at responding to flare-ups in communities.

Yes indeed, said independent Councillor Christy Burke.

There should be a separate forum where councillors can meet senior Garda management, in particular in the north inner-city, he said.

LCSPs are just talking shops and after 4o years as a public rep, he says, he’s done with talking shops. 

Like Horner, Burke says that, in his experience, sitting in a room with 30 opinions doesn’t get anything meaningful done. 

“I sat on the old community policing forum from the word go for about 15 years, okay, and nothing much changed in that time,” he says.

Declan Flanagan, a Fine Gael councillor for Artane-Whitehall, asked what powers the partnerships will actually have in dealing with issues around crime and community safety going forward.

“Issues will be raised, but at what level will they be dealt with, with An Garda Síochána?” he said.

The oversight on the partnerships is through the National Office for Community Safety and then onwards to the Policing and Community Safety Authority, said Quinlivan.

“There is a reporting and governance line there. So, I suppose that's how it feeds up into Justice policy and policing arrangements,” she said.

Quinlivan said that the process is getting underway to seek nominations for partnership membership beyond councillors, she says.

They plan to look for community representation from different interest groups, through the Public Participation Network (PPN), she said.

“Once we have all the nominees in place and sent up to the National Office for Community Safety and on to the minister, we'll be in a position then to hold the first meetings,” said Quinlivan.

Daithí Doolan, a Sinn Féin councillor, acknowledged the ongoing frustrations among councillors –  and agreed with them.

But he made a plea for all involved to make sure the partnerships work, he said. “If you're part of this committee, please attend.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.