HELPING OUT.. Pictured at Carrosyl Community Centre are (left to right) Bernie McCaffrey (Carrosyl), Micheal Mowen (Oak Healthy Living Centre), Majella Curran, Mary Brady, Oliver McCaffrey (Oak Healthy Living Centre), Alison Armstrong (Brady’s Pharmacy), Peter McLaughlin (Community support services for drugs and alcohol) and Derek Friel (Lisnaskea Neighbourhood Policing Scheme).
A LEADING light in Lisnaskea chamber of commerce, and former Fermanagh councillor, Jean McVitty is leading the fight for the reinstatement of neighbourhood police officers in Lisnaskea.
As a result of operational changes introduced on 1st April last, ‘beat’ officers have been subsumed into the PSNI’s Rapid Response Team.
Mrs McVitty said the cutbacks are related to a shortage of money, and she is blaming the ongoing unrest in Belfast, where there is a 24/7 police presence at a protest campsite in Twaddell Avenue, for depriving Lisnaskea of what it was used to.
In her role as an independent member of the Fermanagh Policing and Safety Community Partnership, she raised the issue at last week’s meeting in the Castle Park Centre.
She told the Herald: “There have been a lot of concerns about these changes. It is all to do with the fact that community neighbourhood policing (’beat’ police) is practically non-existent in the town, despite the excellent work that was ongoing, especially with teenagers in the housing estates.”
She went on: “I told senior officers that it was extremely unfair that the rural areas had suffered from the massive expense incurred by the PSNI controlling the unrest in Belfast.”
Mrs McVitty said she made the point that Lisnaskea, the second largest town in the county, needed support of the kind that neighbourhood police officers provided.
“We had visible policing and the elderly were used to them calling with them, whereas now they don’t see anyone and they’re not getting that support.”
She went on: “I was on the PSCP stand at Enniskillen Show where a survey we conducted demonstrated the concerns of the public as regards confidence in local policing, fear of crime and lack of visible policing.”
Mrs McVitty said she has been repeatedly asked where one Community Neighbourhood Officer, Constable Derek Friel was now. An officer with 25 years’ service under his belt, Constable Friel was Neighbourhood Community Police Officer of The year for 2011.
“The town misses his involvement and that of his colleagues. A Community Neighbourhood Officer has special skills built up over time, he knows his community, and where people live and work.
“In contrast, a member of a Response Unit can’t be trained over-night to do community policing.”
As a result of her heartfelt presentation, Mrs McVitty has been offered a meeting with senior
PSNI officers, to be chaired by Councillor Paul Robinson, the chairman of the Fermanagh PCSP.
Also present at last week’s meeting were Maisie McElwaine, the president of Lisnaskea Chamber of Commerce and members of Lisnaskea Community Development Association.
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