Rural dwellers in a large stretch of townlands around the St. Johnston and Raphoe areas will tonight launch the latest stage of their community alert battle to beat burglars.
Residents who are members of the Drumatoland, Castledooey, Sheskin and Momeen Community Alert Committee (DCSM) along with members of the neighbouring Binion View and Glenmaquinn Community Alert Committees have now launched a text alert schemes to help them report suspcious activity.
Chairman of (DCSM) Joe Boland, said the alert system would help residents in the respective areas to be vigilant against any suspicious activities.
“Unfortunately in all of our areas in recent years we have had residents who have been victims of break-ins and burglaries and it would seem that these thieves think that any quiet rural area is fair game.
“By establishing our Community Alert Groups and indeed by extending co-operating across a number of groups, we will have even more people than ever watching for suspicious activity and will have a way of reporting that activity as well.”
The new scheme is being launched in Ballylennon Church Hall tonight and present will be Garda Siochana Inspector David Kelly, local Gardai and Vanessa Clarke of Muintir na Tíre, the National Association for the Promotion of Community Development in Ireland.
“The call will be assessed and if the Gardai deem it relevant, a text alert will be sent out to everyone who has signed up to the scheme in their area. We are confident that this scheme will send another message out to would-be burglars that we are mobilising our communities in association with the local Garda to be more vigilant than ever and that would be burglars have a much greater chance now of being apprehended if they think about coming into our areas,” Mr Boland concluded.