What have the city’s “community safety wardens” been up to?

On a recent Friday as dusk fell, two community safety wardens – identifiable from their  navy jackets with fluorescent stripes – were chatting as they walked up Henry Street.

They turned onto O’Connell Street, past the Spire and the GPO.

One of the wardens nodded to acknowledge a young man sat on the street with a paper cup, before turning the corner onto Abbey Street.

Community safety wardens patrol around O’Connell Street on Thursday to Saturday afternoons, and early evening until 10pm, says a Dublin City Council spokesperson.

Around Wolfe Tone Square, other community wardens walk the streets from Monday to Saturday between 9am and 6pm, they said.

The Department of Justice recently announced plans to roll out the wardens in Limerick and Cork too.

But what have they been doing?

A log for two months last year shows 220 actions that the wardens took on the streets, mostly telling the council of the whereabouts of rough sleepers or giving people directions.

Wardens also called Gardaí, disposed of knives, reported graffiti and told the council where bins were full, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Criminologist Ian Marder says he thinks that the statistics show that the role is focused on helping the public and improving the urban environment – which is good.

“If they can connect people sleeping rough with services, for example, that’s really valuable as long as the services have the capacity to help,” says Marder, assistant professor of criminology at Maynooth University.

“There’s also an important role for the council in ensuring that rubbish, including dangerous rubbish like dropped knives, is collected promptly,” he said.

Not all in the area are aware of the wardens. Two business owners in the O’Connell Street area said they hadn’t seen them, but also that they think the area is vibrant at the moment and pretty safe anyway.

What’s the job?

The community safety wardens are an initiative of the Local Community Safety Partnership for the north inner-city, but are employed by DublinTown, the business association.

A recent job description says that the role is to “maintain a highly visible, reassuring presence in prominent city centre locations and being person centred, open, proactive and approachable.”

It includes referring issues to relevant authorities, like the Gardaí and the council, and signposting members of the public, including those who are vulnerable, to relevant services.

From 21 September to 22 November 2023, community safety wardens logged 220 actions they took on the streets around O’Connell Street and Wolfe Tone Square.

During that time, the wardens reported rough sleepers to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) on around 100 occasions. They gave directions to members of the public 69 times.

The wardens logged seven incidents where they found and disposed of knives on the streets – although it is unclear if there was overlap as four of the incidents were logged on one day.

Community safety wardens also called the Gardaí once and reported overflowing bins, graffiti and blocked drains to the council.

Who needs what

Marder, the criminologist, says that while some people have called for Gardaí to crack down hard on “anti-social behaviour” in the city centre, research shows that zero-tolerance policing approaches don’t necessarily make places feel safer.

Some US police departments adopted the approach, he says, but this didn’t reduce violence. Instead, police often targeted minor anti-social behaviour, and so ended up alienating people, especially those experiencing poverty and addiction, he said.

The community safety wardens seem to be engaged in pro-social work, says Marder such as helping tourists and the homeless.

That’s to be commended, he said.“It will certainly help more than trying to search and arrest our way out of social problems.”

That said, there needs to be an evaluation of the initiative to examine if the outcomes align with the objectives, he says. So too says Green Party Councillor Janet Horner, who sits on the Local Community Safety Partnership.

“I think what we are trying to do is establish a presence and a sense of trust in the community,” says Horner.

She doesn’t know if that has worked. “I haven’t seen enough yet to know if that is happening,” she says.

Community safety wardens are focused in business areas, and employed by DublinTown. And, one point of tension around community safety in the north inner-city has long been where efforts to ensure community safety end up focused.

Past research by retired detective superintendent Eunan Dolan looked at how businesses have a louder voice and more social capital in debates around community safety than those living in neighbourhoods to the east of O’Connell Street, around Sheriff Street and the Five Lamps.

That can draw policing resources to the business district, and leave residential communities feeling abandoned.

In May during debate on the Dublin City Task Force, Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon pointed to a similar dynamic.

When there is public attention to an incident in the north inner-city, “crime gets pushed into the residential areas of Dorset Street or wherever beyond for a period. Then a residents’ group emerges and it is pushed back into the city centre,” he said. “We have had that cycle for the best part of four decades now.”

But, two things are really needed in the north-inner city, Gannon said, citing more gardaí to respond to calls, and properly funded healthcare to help people out of chronic addiction.

There needs to be a situation where “chronic open drug dealing is no longer tolerated and when people experience crime a garda will be present”, he said.

On Tuesday, representatives in two local businesses said that despite issues, the O’Connell Street area is experiencing an increase in footfall and is a vibrant shopping area.

Noel Kelly, manager of McDowell’s Jewellers on O’Connell Street, says he heard about the initiative to pilot community safety wardens in the north inner-city when it was launched in 2023.

But he hasn’t seen them himself, he said.

“We’re completely unaware of them,” he says. “We haven’t seen them on O’Connell Street and I’m here five days a week, 12 months of the year.”

(When exactly community wardens hit the ground on O’Connell Street is unclear. A council spokesperson said it was August 2024, but the log from autumn 2023 shows incidents from that period.)

Those who work on the street have become accustomed to a level of health and safety issues that might surprise other people, says Kelly.

But it is far from all-bad, he said.

“O’Connell Street is busier and it has a vibrancy now that it didn’t have four years ago,” says Kelly. Footfall has doubled, he says, and business is good.

O’Connell Street needs more gardaí on the beat, says Kelly, but to really address the issues all the relevant government departments need to work together. That  doesn’t appear to be happening, he says.

Liam Lonergan, the managing director of Budget Travel and Club Travel, on Abbey Street, says that he hasn’t heard of the wardens but also doesn’t think the city centre is very dangerous.

“I’m not even aware of community safety wardens,” says Lonergan.

There are a lot of people who use drugs in the city centre, he says, but they don’t pose a threat to others although they may shout at times.

“The perception is a lot worse than the reality, that is my view,” he says. “Particularly when it comes to drug addicts.”

There is a perception that the city centre is dangerous but he thinks actual violence is rare, he says. “I’m of an older generation and I walk around here all the time, myself, and I never feel the slightest threat from anyone.”

The city centre is a public transport hub, with huge footfall, great vibrancy and a wide variety of things to do. “There are a lot of good things happening as well that unfortunately don’t get any notice,” says Lonergan.