Property marking will help ‘decent citizens’

A new property-marking scheme, set to be introduced across the city’s five wards, will act as a deterrent to crime and will help to foster even stronger ties between communities and An Garda Síochána, according to the Lord Mayor of Cork City.

Announcing the proposed new scheme at Douglas Community Centre, the Lord Mayor of Cork Deirdre Forde, said it was her intention to apply for funding from the Joint Policing Committee for the purchase of five property-marking machines, one for each of Cork city’s wards.

It is understood that each of the property-marking machines, which etch a permanent mark such as an Eircode onto a piece of property like a laptop, a bicycle, or lawnmower, will cost in the region of €6,000.

“The beauty of property-marking is that if a marked item is stolen and is later recovered by the gardaí, they are able to get it back to its owner quickly,” Ms Forde told The Echo.

Property Marking Ireland CEO and founder James O’Neill said his scheme is a community-led, not-for-profit crime prevention programme.

“What we want to do is increase the fear for mobile criminal gangs and opportunistic thieves and reduce it for decent, law-abiding citizens, many of them tradespeople with their livelihoods in the back of their vans,” he said.

Sergeant James Sweeney, sergeant in charge of community policing in Togher, said the initiative was fantastic, and he predicted it would lead to a decrease in crime and an increase in confidence in the public.

“Having signs up advertising that property is marked will act as a great deterrent, the same way that CCTV, alarms, all those things are visible deterrents,” Sgt Sweeney said.

Fine Gael councillor Damian Boylan, chairperson of the Joint Policing Committee, said the scheme was a wonderful initiative in terms of community engagement and positive interaction with the gardaí.

“We’re looking forward to going to our next Joint Policing Committee meeting, asking for the funding that is required, and seeing this scheme in action across the five wards of Cork City,” he added.