There is understandable cynicism about the Garda and other State agencies among some in the inner-city. They have seen at first hand how the heroin problem was allowed to fester over many years without serious intervention from the State. At the height of the crisis there were dealers operating openly on the streets. And the reasons for the low level of Garda activity have never been properly explained.

A combination of the following may partly account for it: official indifference to the plight of communities who were already marginalised; an inability on the part of politicians and the Garda to heed the warnings of community activists; lack of resources, information and, perhaps, leadership among some in the Garda.

Many point out that it was not until the drugs problem broke out of the abandoned working class areas and into the middle-class suburbs that it was taken seriously.

The decision of working-class people to effectively police their own areas also made the establishment sit up.

The situation is fundamentally changed now, but there are still lessons to be learned from the years of Garda neglect on the drugs issue.

Even after the State recognised the gravity of the heroin problem - after the murder of Veronica Guerin - many of the new measures took far too long to have an impact on the streets. In August of last year, after a pusher was given bail and returned to his flat in Summerhill, local people put a picket on his flat.

Within weeks, a spontaneous movement had erupted right across the city which gave people in abandoned areas confidence and new hope. People began to march peacefully on pushers' homes, demanding that they stop dealing drugs or leave the area. Patrols and vigils of local people attempted to keep their streets free of drug dealing.

There was, and still is, much tension between these marches and patrols and the Garda. We could hardly be surprised since there was no mechanism to allow some mediation between the angry citizens and the forces of law and order. Local people could not understand how Garda resources could target illegal street traders while heroin was being sold openly around the corner.

The result of the street campaign was that by Christmas 1996 many areas in the city were no longer experiencing open drug dealing.

In Dublin's north inner city, at the junction of Buckingham Street and Sean MacDermott Street, a Christmas tree was erected by Dublin Corporation in a welcome gesture of solidarity with the residents of the area. Local residents adapted the tree to commemorate all those who died in the drugs epidemic. Families placed stars on the tree in memory of their loved ones, and ceremonies, vigils and private grieving took place there throughout the Christmas period.

The tree was known as the tree of hope, which ironically is the translation of the Irish word Dochas, the same word used to describe the police action to regain control of the Dublin streets and estates which had been under the sway of the heroin dealers.

It must be said that during this period a distinction was made by community groups between the Drugs Squad and other branches of the Garda. While the Drugs Squad, particularly in the north inner city, adopted a pragmatic approach and even reported to the anti-drugs assemblies, the other branches of the Garda were perceived to have learned nothing from the drugs crisis of the 1980s. They often seemed more intent on harassing the anti-drugs activists than tackling the drug pushers.

The reasons for this have to do with the centralised nature of the Garda structure. Units in the Garda are specialised in relation to types of crime, not in relation to issues which hover in that sensitive space between matters civil and matters criminal.

A helpful distinction can be made between community policing and policing the community. Most of the measures (Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert) practised up to now have assumed a compliant co-operative citizenship, a community willing to co-operate with the Garda. They assume that criminal activity is imported from outside the area. However, in many areas there is an ambiguous relationship with the Garda. How is policing to be carried out in areas from which the bulk of offenders in our prisons come? In these areas, to co-operate with the Garda is to risk becoming an outcast. To practise zero tolerance in these areas would mean open war with the local community.

Facing up to this ambiguity in the relationship between local communities and the Garda is at the heart of what needs to be changed if the situation is to be improved.

The shortcomings of the present situation were expressed by Assistant Commissioner Tom King at the Drugs in Dublin conference earlier this year:

"I want to pay tribute here to the local community both at the individual and community group level. An Garda Siochana respects and acknowledges the part played by the community in the fight against drugs in their areas. We have observed the energy and commitment put into the efforts to get rid of the drug problem and to improve the quality of life for all living in their area. In a democracy like this, policing is not something you do to people but for them and with them. The success of Operation Dochas over the past few months has in large measure represented the combined effort of ordinary decent hard-working concerned people and an Garda Siochana."

Community leaders acknowledge that much progress has been made on the treatment front. And, in the spirit of Mr King's statement above, the lessons of the past year on the policing issue must be learned by all sectors.

What is now also needed is a radical reorientation of the relationship between the community and the police authorities. New structures should be established at local level to attempt the following: to improve Garda and community relations; to provide a formal structure for Garda community conciliation, particularly on contentious issues; to link community and Garda concerns under good estate management practice; to provide a clear method of dealing with information, particularly in relation to youth issues in local areas, and to collectively find ways of sensitively solving issues of antisocial behaviour.

In the north inner city, a pilot community policing scheme will begin shortly. In an area where so many tensions have existed between the community and the police such innovation has to be given time and resources to succeed.

There will be many different variations on such localised structures, but they all should have a single common purpose, and that is to enable the Garda, Dublin Corporation and community groups to work in conjunction with each other to give the local community a real role in how their communities are policed and their estates are managed.

Mick Rafferty is co-chairperson of the Dublin Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign.