A local councillor thinks a return to community policing would see a change.
Drug dealers in Westmeath are terrorising decent people.
Fianna Fail's Aengus O'Rourke also says one estate in Athlone is out of control with anti-social behaviour and crime.
He says he has knowledge of council tenants actively engaging in selling drugs, and that tenant agreements aren't worth the paper they're on.
Councillor O'Rourke believes a lack of willingness to enforce the rules by the local authority is enabling the behaviour.
He thinks a return to an older garda model of community policing would see a change: