‘I’m delighted to be back’: New Superintendent looks ahead

These are changing times for An Garda Siochana, with a new Garda Commissioner at the helm and the publication of a report aimed reforming the organisation, by the Commission on the Future of Policing, late last year.

Changes are happening locally, too, with the first phase of the long-awaited Athlone Garda Station redevelopment now complete and the appointment in recent weeks of Superintendent Aidan Minnock to head up the Athlone district.
The Tullamore man, who replaces Superintendent Shane Cummins, is returning to the town where he previously served for more than seven years as an Inspector.
The new Garda facilities in the former social protection building are a significant improvement on the station from which the new Superintendent previously worked between 2010 and 2017.
Speaking to the Westmeath Independent, he said the move into the new building had given local Gardai a significant boost.
"There's a great enthusiasm and I suppose reinvigoration here, moving into this building," he commented.
"The layout of the building has incorporated our views in relation to prisoner management, how we deal with visitors, including vulnerable persons, wheelchair accessibility, a designated area for dealing with immigration and people who need their stamps updated by our immigration officer.
"No matter who comes to the station now, we feel that we have better facilities to deal with them - a much more modernised building - so it’s great. And it’s a nice, bright, airy building to work in."
He said there will still be some "accommodation restrictions" over the next year, while work takes place on redeveloping the 'old' Garda station building, before the two buildings are ultimately completed and combined to form one large, modern station.
Superintendent Minnock believes the extra station space could bring opportunities for additional Garda divisions to be located in Athlone.
He said a divisional policing model had been recommended by the Commission on the Future of Policing, and this would involve some restructuring within the Garda organisation.
"There are talks, within that model, about Superintendents having more portfolio-based responsibilities, rather than areas of responsibility," he said.
"I feel Athlone can certainly be a very central hub as part of that new model of policing and that Athlone, with the new accommodation, can take on additional divisional units which will be policing Athlone and also the wider area."
A married father of two girls, who resides in his native Tullamore, he has been working in the Gardai for the last 25 years.
He said it had always been his ambition to serve in the force.
"I've an uncle who was a Garda Sergeant in Dublin, and another uncle who was a guard in Offaly," he explained.
"Both of them would have been an inspiration for me, and my father would always speak fondly of, and have great time for, An Garda Siochana. So overall there was some pedigree of guards in my family and it would have helped form my view, from an early age, that I wanted to be a guard," he said.
While his career has seen him stationed in a variety of locations around Ireland, he also had a spell working for a year in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of an EU police mission reviewing cold case war crimes - generally murders - during the Bosnian war,
"That was a very interesting year," he said. "I really enjoyed that, and gained a lot from it. You were working with very diverse police officers from all around Europe on that mission, and it was very enjoyable."
Since his previous spell in Athlone ended in 2017, his roles have included working as a Superintendent in Trim, joining the homicide investigation review unit in Garda HQ, and working on a review and new strategy for the Garda Reserves programme.
As a result of such roles, he said he's now in a position to bring "an organisational wider perspective on policing to Athlone."
During his first period working here there were a number of high profile Athlone Garda investigations into crimes such as the killing of Marie Greene, the murder of Patryk Krupa, and the horrific sexual assault of two young girls in the town.
Superintendent Minnock said achieving successful prosecutions in cases such as those were among the standout moments of that time in his career.
"We had some very significant investigations and I suppose getting successful prosecutions in the Central Criminal Court in relation to those are some of the moments that stand out to me," he said.
"When people that you've helped through those big cases come back to you, and how appreciative they are to get closure... that really is the most memorable thing."
He said he was looking forward to his new role in the town. "I know the town and the people of the town, in the community, who are very pro-policing and pro-Garda.
"It’s a great community here in Athlone and I know the team of guards that I’m working with. I know most of them very well, and I’m delighted to be back here working with them.
"I have great cooperation and support both from the locals and from the team of guards here, so it’s great to be coming back."
Asked about the challenges he expects to face in the role, he said: "Some of the main challenges surround detection and prevention of some of the very personal crimes, such as burglaries. That’s very important for the community.
"Just like all provincial towns, the monitoring of drug activity within the town is a continuous challenge. Athlone and the district here includes other smaller towns such as Moate and Kilbeggan and there are challenges in those towns as well, in relation to policing.
"Crime trends continuously change, and new crimes emerge, and it’s a matter of monitoring those trends and then being pro-active in terms of what you can do to curb the escalation of those trends."

The proliferation of smartphones and their possible use in criminal prosecutions is one of the major changes affecting policing in the last decade.
"Previously (guards) might do a search and we’d be looking for a mobile phone. Now that search might take back six devices," he explained.
"Every one of those devices has to be analysed, there’s a whole exhibit management process in relation to everything you seize, how you store that data, where you keep it, how you retrieve it, and how you present it as evidence... that’s a challenge for policing, going forward, across the world."
He concluded by stressing the importance of community engagement by Gardai and said he'd be working to help increase the visibility of the force locally.
"I’m aware that the public always require increased visibility; That’s something I’m very conscious of and something I’d be hoping to reinvigorate in the town, in terms of guards on the beat and the general visibility of guards in areas," he concluded.