The Garda text alert scheme in Moycullen has been hailed a huge success, and is expected to expand further next year.
Galway County Councillor Noel Thomas said hundreds of people have signed up to the Garda ‘text alert’ scheme in Moycullen.
He said there was “massive interest” in the community scheme, which was established last February.
The Fianna Fáil elected representative said people were alerted to the presence of a suspicious white van calling to doors in the Moycullen area last week.
“It’s a great scheme,” he said.
Cllr Thomas was speaking at the annual public meeting of the County Galway Joint Policing Committee, which was held in Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe.
Afterwards he explained that some 237 people in Moycullen have signed up to the text alert scheme. Mary Dunne was the driving force behind the scheme, along with local Garda Barry Donoghue.
“The first phase was the setting up of the text alert; now the plan is to expand. It is hoped that next year we will be able to buy some carbon monoxide alarms and to install additional locks and security in vulnerable people’s homes in the area,” he said.
Some of the leftover money used to set up the text alert scheme will be diverted to purchasing carbon monoxide alarms and locks, he said.
The text alert schemes aim to bring communities together to identify suspicious activity or vehicles in an area.
Working with Gardaí, the community uses mobile phones to monitor suspicious activity in an area in an effort to reduce rural crime, such as burglaries.
Gardaí will also use texts to alert community of crime prevention measures, or to ask them to keep an eye out for things, for example, if they are looking for a particular vehicle in an area.
Scores of schemes have been rolled out in communities right across Galway in recent years.