Editorial: The work of Community Safety Partnerships must be accessible for the communities they serve

The media were invited to a meeting of the newly constituted Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership (WLCSP) last week, at which significant insight was provided into crime across the Waterford Garda district.

For a while, there has been some concern that the media was being precluded from access to such information - reduced to information via 'press release'.

Previously, the media regularly attended meetings of what was formerly the Joint Policing Committee (JPC), at which detailed statistics were provided pertaining to crime trends across the Waterford garda division. 

JPCs were established to provide a forum to support "consultation, cooperation and synergy on policing and crime issues" between the Garda Síochána, local authority officials, elected representatives and the community and voluntary sectors. 

In Waterford, a pilot Local Community Safety Partnership was introduced in 2021, alongside similar pilot models in Dublin's North Inner City and Longford. Rolled out by the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, the Waterford pilot has now moved to a statutory structure, and the LCSP model is being extended nationwide, replacing the original JPC structure.

Alongside the pilot in Waterford, a tailored Local Community Safety Plan 2023-2028 was developed in consultation with local communities. The first meeting of the newly constituted Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership took place on November 3, 2025.

The media has been watching with interest the development of the new partnership model, with some concern that, since the commencement of the pilot, less access was being provided to key garda statistical information, which would be considered very much in the public interest.   

At last week's LCSP meeting, however, the media were invited to attend and Superintendent Gavin Hegarty provided an update on recent crime trends, details of which are included in articles in this edition of the Waterford News & Star.

Those present heard details concerning theft-related crime - the biggest challenge for Gardaí locally in terms of crime volume, with thefts from shops the main crime driver. It was also noted that Waterford Garda Station is probably the third busiest Garda station in the country. A positive was that Waterford has the highest detection rate in the Eastern region, reflecting the excellent work being carried out by gardaí locally.

Another positive was a substantive drop in burglaries - which dropped to under 100 incidents last year, compared to 1,000 in years gone by. 

Drawing attention to the presence of the media at the meeting, Councillor Joe Kelly described it as "refreshing" for them to be able to hear everything that was being communicated. It had been feared that the model was moving towards an 'in camera' style of operation.

Cllr Kelly said the media has a very important role to play in informing the public about what the partnership is about and what it is trying to achieve.

"I think it strengthens our democracy that we do whatever we can in public,” he said.

The concept of the local community safety partnerships is to be commended - bringing together a wide range of community safety stakeholders, including the HSE, Tusla, community and voluntary sector organisations and local residents, as well as Gardaí, local authorities and elected representatives. The aim of the partnerships is to develop a collaborative response to community safety issues. However, in aiming to prioritise "the voice of local communities" in identifying community safety issues in their areas, its work must, in turn, be wholly transparent and visible to the communities they serve. Those best placed to meet that communication need continue to be the regional media - local newspapers and radio, with our professionally trained journalists to disseminate that information.