Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2008
Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland)
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2008
Contact:  http://www.irishexaminer.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/144
Author: Cormac O'Keeffe

NATIONAL HOTLINE AIMS TO COMBAT DRUG DEALING

A NATIONAL hotline to combat drug dealing is to be  rolled out across 
the country from this autumn.

The confidential phoneline is aimed at providing  "intimidated 
communities" a safe way to pass on  information anonymously about 
drug dealing in their  areas, and indirectly, to gardai.

The national programme is based on the success of two  local 
initiatives in Dublin (in Blanchardstown and the  north-inner city) 
which have assisted Garda inquiries,  leading to the arrest of 
suspected dealers.

The joint effort by the National Drugs Strategy Team  (NDST) and the 
Garda has received funding of E350,000  from the Dormant Accounts 
Fund and the Department of  Justice.

"A big factor in communities is intimidation,  communities feel that 
there's very little that can be  done to respond," said Aoife Davy, 
acting director of  the NDST. "This is very useful for communities to 
get  involved in a safe way and they can see something out  of it. It 
also builds on the link between communities  and gardai, which is a 
very important part of the  National Drugs Strategy."

She said it would work the same way as the  Blanchardstown model, 
with an independent call centre  taking phone calls from the public. 
It, in turn, would  send reports to the relevant Garda station.

An evaluation of the Blanchardstown project, published  in November 
2006, found that one in four calls to the  helpline provided useful 
information to gardai. Nearly  a fifth of reports sent to the local 
station resulted  in arrests and prosecution.

The national programme was announced last week in the  Dail by 
Minister of State at the Department of Justice  Barry Andrews.

Ms Davy said the programme would be done on a rolling  basis and they 
would learn as they went along. She said  that a management company 
would be the central agency  for the programme and the contract for 
this would be  signed next week. She said there would be a single 
phone number for all task forces areas involved.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart