Joint Policing Committee has first meeting in Trim

The first meeting of the new Trim Town Joint Policing Committee took place in the local town hall last Thursday. The joint policing committee (JPC) involves local public representatives, An Garda Siochana, the town clerk, town manager and community representatives. Trim JPC community representatives are RAY youth cafe co-ordinator Cathy Farrelly, SMART Co-ordinator Karen Warren and Pierce Johnson of Trim Tidy Towns committee. Cllr Ronan McKenna was elected as chairperson and Cllr Ray Butler as vice-chairperson. Cllr McKenna said it was a very important initiative for the town. “It is a great initiative. It is something that will take hard work but that is something this town council is not afraid of,†he said. Town clerk Brian Murphy, secretary of the JPC, said they would meet on a quarterly basis and that part of the guidelines is to form a work plan for the town. He explained that not all the meetings would be in public and that, once a year, there would an open forum where all members of the public are welcome to come and make submissions. Superintendent Mary Gormley said the idea is to advance policing issues and quality of life issues locally. She said policing is not something done by the Gardai on their own and that they would be working on a policy with the community. Regarding plans for CCTV in the town, Mr Murphy said the town council's initial CCTV project would involve four radius locations and that they are still awaiting confirmation from one property owner for permission to erect a camera. “This is the final piece of the jigsaw and then we can proceed with the planning process,†said Mr Murphy. He said they could not erect poles for the cameras as Trim is a heritage town. Once the final approval is given, the plans will be put on public display and it will be open to the public to make submissions. Mr Murphy said there would be a recording system and that the CCTV would aid in crime prevention and also investigation. However, he added it would be in line with data protection rules and would not be “looking into anyone's back gardenâ€. The meeting heard the council's initial submission for public funding for 12 camera locations was unsuccessful and that the town council had put aside a fund of €100,000 to get the project off the ground and that the scheme would allow for additional locations in future. Supt Gormley said they wanted to ensure that when CCTV is in operation that it would not dislocate the crime to somewhere else. She said: “I am delighted we have a JPC in Trim, It is the way forward and a way for people to bring issues they want addressed.†The next committee meeting, which will be closed to the public, will take place on 1st February.