The project will draw up plans detailing how the community wants to prevent crime, and will reflect community priorities and local safety issues
The Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership Project was launched by The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee on Friday 13 May at the Vestibule, Theatre Royal, Waterford.
The Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership Project is part of a community-based initiative to be piloted for two years, where local communities work with State services to draw up local plans to prevent crime in their own areas.
Three locations were identified to pilot the initiative – Waterford, Dublin’s North Inner City, and Longford – based on factors including population density, crime rates and deprivation. Each Local Community Safety Partnership will have an independent chairperson and will develop a Local Community Safety Plan, with Sean Alyward, former Secretary General of the Department of Justice, the chair for Waterford.
The Partnerships will bring together residents, community representatives, business interests, councillors, local authorities, and State services such as An Garda Síochána, Tusla and the HSE to devise and implement the Local Community Safety Plans. The plans will detail how best the community wants to prevent crime and will reflect community priorities and local safety issues.
Research to identify best practices to promote community safety
As part of the Local Community Safety Partnership project, South East Technological University (SETU) Waterford and Waterford City and County Council are collaborating on a co-funded Research Masters project to identify and evaluate best practices to effectively manage local issues and promote community safety. The research project will be led by Principal Investigator for the project Dr Geraldine Cleere (Department of Law & Criminal Justice, SETU Waterford) who will be joined by Dr Michael Bergin (Head of Department of Law & Criminal Justice, School of Humanities, SETU Waterford) and Dr Suzanne Denieffe (Head of the School of Humanities, SETU Waterford). The research will see the recruitment of a postgraduate research student to work with the Local Community Safety Partnership stakeholders.
New frontier in policing strategy
Speaking of the initiative, Dr Geraldine Cleere said, “We are delighted to be involved with this programme that represents an innovative approach to the future of policing throughout Ireland. It showcases the tremendous collaborative work that is taking place between the An Garda Siochana, Waterford City and County Council and various other agencies who are working directly with communities to promote a wide and inclusive approach to enhanced safety and wellbeing throughout the County. As the evaluators of the project, we look forward to meeting with all of the key stakeholders that are doing such instrumental work in moving this project forward.
“For the Department of Law and Criminal Justice it is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with external stakeholders and bring the depth of expertise within the Department to bear on such an important local and national initiative. From a research perspective, it is also wonderful to be working on a project that is at the forefront of a new frontier in policing strategy and holds such potential for national collaborations when this programme is rolled out throughout Ireland over the coming years.”
Positive, collaborative work of Waterford Partnership
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, whose department is funding the scheme, met with the local representatives involved in the Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership at the launch.
Following her meeting, Minister McEntee commended their work saying:
“Community Safety Partnerships are a new approach to building stronger, safer communities. They bring the community together with state agencies and other organisations to discuss and draw up plans on how they can make their own communities safer – because they are best placed to know what their own communities need…I am encouraged by the positive, collaborative work of the Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership in developing this approach to achieve stronger and safer communities in Waterford.
“The Waterford partnership has held workshops and worked on local projects already, and these will be vital in developing innovative ways to improve communities, not only in Waterford but throughout the country...”
It is planned that every local authority area will have a Community Safety Partnership, with dedicated funding and staff once the policy is rolled out nationally as part of reforms outlined by the Commission on the Future of Policing.