See Something, Say Something has been rolled out in Dingle and Listowel, and will be officially launched next month.
The text-based system allows members of the public to report suspicious activity anonymously to gardaí by text.
It was initiated by Kerry gardaí and developed in collaboration with Tralee Chamber Alliance, and was the first initiative of its kind in Ireland.
The service had been set up by a private company but has now been bought by An Garda Síochana.
See Something, Say Something allows any member of the public to report anti-social or suspicious behaviour anonymously via text message, and the nearest available Garda patrol is dispatched.
It’s been in operation in Tralee since 2018 and Killarney since 2019, and has assisted in reducing public order incidents in Tralee by 22%.
The service has now become operational in Dingle and Listowel, and is to be officially launched next month.
So far this year, there have been 253 messages to See Something, Say Something in Kerry.
This is up two-and-half times on previous years, but is due to the service being extended to the two towns.
Based on these figures, gardaí expect there’ll be over 1,000 texts to See Something, Say Something in Kerry this year.
Inspector Tim O’Keeffe said there can be a lull in texts at times, but noted that anytime See Something, Say Something is mentioned on Radio Kerry, there’s a spike in the number of texts.
