Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has said some of the behaviour around drug-related intimidation in Ireland is "absolutely horrendous".
Mr Kelly was speaking at a meeting with the Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA) in Wexford.
It is the first time the authority has met outside Dublin and the first of a series of in-person regional events to be addressed by the commissioner.
"You would have seen many of the stories in the media of some of the things that people do to try and enforce their debts," Commissioner Kelly said regarding drug-related intimidation.
He said the issue was an important but difficult one.
"Intimidation is part and parcel of the drugs business. So there is nowhere in the world where there is not intimidation involved in the drugs business.
"We have a dedicated inspector in every single division. We've trained them how to deal with drugs related intimidation. Again, all the contact details are available on our website."
He said the first thing he would say to any member of the public is: "Whether it's you, it's one of your children, they're being intimidated in relation to drugs, debts, or whatever that is, please to contact us."
He said there could be a stigma or a fear attached to that.
"People are absolutely terrified. If they go to the guards, what will happen to them or the children? And obviously these absolutely terrible people involved in this business, I mean, they use this as a way of threatening people.
"And they say, if you go to the guards, X, Y or Z, will happen. What I would say is, please come to us. You can meet us, we can speak to you confidentially about whatever your issue is."
Commissioner Kelly also said there would never be any judgement.
He said he wanted to encourage the public, that if they wanted advice or assistance, that they should still ring or call into their local garda station.
However, in an emergency, he said they should still call 999, including if they wanted gardaí to call out to them. He said all calls would be triaged.
"If you need a patrol car or someone on the bench to come to you outside, I just want to be really clear, we're not discouraging people against that.
"In fact, the opposite that's really important to us, that people still contact us and still come into us."
Asked about how calls to garda stations are handled, he said An Garda Síochána was dependent on people who answer the phone and what action they take after that.
"We obviously have supervisors in place. That's their job to ensure that the people who are answering those calls, that they're doing what they should be doing."
He said anything that merits an incident would go on the PULSE system and that there could be cases where people do not get the response they should get.
In the policing business, he said: "We have to put a level of trust in the people, and the training that we put into them, that we expect them when they answer the phone and people say, 'I have a problem', whatever it is that they then take action on it.
"If it's a local community problem, that they pass it on to local community police."
The PCSA was established in April this year to oversee policing performance at An Garda Síochána.
Chairperson of the PCSA Elaine Byrne said the meeting would hear about how communities can be part of the solution.
Director of the National Office for Community Safety Gráinne Berrill said every community has different issues and this was about taking a bottom-up approach to recognise issues in communities themselves.
She said a consultation in Longford had identified issues with victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence not feeling confident going into garda stations to report issues and crimes.
Ms Berrill said the local Women's Link group had applied for funding to develop a training programme.
She said a "soft interview room" concept was developed at Longford Garda Station which feels more like a living room where people can feel more comfortable to talk.
There are now 36 local community partnerships across Ireland.
Response to gender-based violence 'something I have to tackle', says Kelly
Speaking at the meeting, Commissioner Kelly acknowledged recent reports that a significant percentage of victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence were not satisfied with the garda response.
"Obviously, as incoming commissioner, this is something that I certainly have to tackle," he said.
He said he had met recently with key NGOs in this area including Women's Aid and Cuan, which was established last year to promote a zero tolerance approach to gender-based violence.
Mr Kelly said the very least victims deserved was garda support.
He said it was absolutely clear that the public want more focus on this with sexual crime and domestic violence coming back from recent surveys as their top priorities.
"We have made significant progress from where we were," Commissioner Kelly said.
He added that this included bespoke operations led out by national teams using a risk assessment tool in relation to domestic abuse cases.
Asked by PCSA board member Joe Costello whether training was adequate, Commissioner Kelly said substantial training was available for all new recruits and was part of the continued professional development for all gardaí.
Speaking at the same meeting, Chief Superintendent for Wexford Derek Hughes urged anyone affected by domestic or sexual abuse crimes to come forward.
'Significant responsibility' to check traffic in Rosslare port
Commissioner Kelly also told the PCSA meeting that he visited Rosslare Europort this morning, which he said had expanded, particularly since Brexit.
"There's now 44 sailings in and 44 out every single week there.
"Obviously there's a significant responsibility on us to check a lot of that traffic coming in - vehicles, foot passenger and particularly the container traffic coming in.
"The threat of drug importation is obviously high on our agenda down at the port, we've had a number of particularly significant seizures of controlled drugs coming in there. It's been a route in from Continental Europe," Commissioner Kelly said.
Referring to people being trafficked through the port, he said some people were being put in an absolutely terrible position, smuggled into the country.
"We’ve rescued people from terrible situations," he said.
He said there were risks around these seafaring journeys to Ireland which could be in excess of 24-hours, if there were delays at sea.
Asked by Ms Byrne about whether there were 30 gardaí deployed at Rosslare Port and whether they might be better deployed elsewhere, the Commissioner said there will always be a need for policing at ports and airports.
However, he said there was a preference that some of the functions be transferred to an extended border immigration unit, working with the Department of Justice.
