Carlow Gardai to respond to Laois incidents
Carlow Gardai have agreed to respond to callouts in Laois if they are closest to an incident.
It follows a meeting of Garda Superintendent John Lawless and his counterpart in Carlow in relation to responses to crime on the Laois Carlow border, a Loais Joint Policing meeting was told.
Cllr Ben Brennan had raised the issue of response times at a previous meeting of the Joint Policing Committee.
Speaking at the latest meeting, Chief Supt John Scanlan said:
“Superintendent Lawless here had a meeting with the Superintendent in Carlow about that interface on the border there to see can we improve our services there.”
“He has committed to Carlow guards doing the initial contact call if there is an issue in that area there,”
“Sometimes they will be closer to our calls... he has undertaken that his staff will answer those calls and we will take over the wider investigation as it relates to us,” he explained.
Cllr Brennan asked how far from Carlow gardai might respond to incidents across the border in Laois.
“Will they come out to Killeshin to cover that area?” he asked.
Chief Supt Scanlan said “they are committed and they have been committed by their Superintendent to attend these calls. The issue will be when the control in Dublin deal with the issue of the caller they will send the nearest unit to it. If that happens to be Carlow it will be Carlow, if it happens to be somebody patrolling in the area it will be them.”