Bogside Community Association to survey residents on policing for the area. Will they ever accept the RUC?
The Bogside Community Association has now decided that the people should have a say in the type of police service in the area. The choice is between a community police service based on sympathy and understanding rather than punishment.
Eamon Deane, organiser of the Bogside Community Association, describes the current state of the security situation in the area. He explains that there is effectively no policing in the area. The RUC only arrives at the Bogside with guns and armoured cars accompanied by the British army in order to deliver summonses for political offences.
There is effectively no policing in the area.
Eamon Deane explains that this has created a sense of unease in an area which he says has little or no crime. Prior to 1969, there was an RUC station in the Bogside which was closed down because there was no crime to deal with. In this context, he feels it is important to ask the residents of the Bogside if they want a community police service.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 2 June 1975. The reporter is Olivia O'Leary.
