New 'chatting benches', where the public can talk informally with a member of the Gardaí, look set to be expanded.
This follows on from a successful initial bench in Co Wicklow.
Superintendent Declan McCarty is from Wicklow Garda station.
He told Lunchtime Live the idea originally came from Sergeant John Fitzpatrick in Bray, who was on patrol along the seafront.
"John, when he was on patrol down around there, thought that it would be a great opportunity if we could get some sort of a forum to allow the public to stop and chat with a Guard.
"Every now and then a member of the Gardaí - we put it up on the Garda Síochána Wicklow Facebook page - and a member of the Gardaí would go down, sit on the bench and passers-by would just stop randomly and engage with them.
"Quite often it would be adults with young children out for a walk, or people out walking their pets.
Garda Niall Kennedy on the chatting bench at the Black Castle in Co Wicklow. Picture by: Facebook/Garda Siochana Wicklow"Or people... who haven't had an opportunity to engage with anyone, and maybe people who were cocooning during the very stricter lockdowns that we did have.
"They were very happy to engage with the Guards there."
He said because of this and positive feedback, other areas are doing similar initiatives.
"I know that my colleagues in Naas have already picked up on it, and we... decided that we'd try and do the same in Wicklow town."
'Initial interaction with Gardaí'
He said they are planning to have a Guard at these locations for at least one hour a week.
"Essentially what it'll do, I think, is it provides a facility for members of the public just to engage and interact with us in a much less formal fashion.
"It also probably provides a facility for somebody who might be too afraid to go into a Garda station - or for reasons of their own would be too concerned to go into a Garda station.
"But that it would provide a facility for them to have an initial interaction with a member of the Gardaí".
Superintendent McCarty said it is all going "surprisingly well."
"When we would get photographs back from the lads who were doing the chatting bench, there was huge engagement on the Facebook page with it.
"And it was very clear that the public had an appetite to engage with us in a much less formal atmosphere.
"An awful lot of parents took the opportunity to show their children that this was a member of the Gardaí, but that actually there's a person behind the uniform".
