Garda stats show surge in property crimes and assaults

Its monthly report to the authority shows:

• Property crime has jumped by 14% between April-June 2017, compared to the same period last year;
• Crimes against the person (mainly assaults) increased by 16%;
• Criminal damage rose by 17%;
• Public order offences increased by 10%;
• Robbery offences were up 2%.

The report points out that the figures are based on provisional data and that the CSO publishes the official crime statistics.

The CSO last week decided for a second time not to publish Garda statistics because of ongoing concerns regarding the veracity of homicide figures specifically.

The CSO told the Irish Examiner it did not have specific concerns — other than the caveats they have already flagged in their publications — in relation to other crimes.

The CSO said they had made a decision either to publish all the crime figures together, including the homicide data, or delay publication until the homicide figures were robust.

The figures in the commissioner’s report to the authority are currently the only available figures on crime trends.

“In recent months there have been substantial increases in incident counts across many crime groups,” said the report.

“This upsurge has occurred quite recently, mostly over the past four months, in both offences driven by Garda activity, as well as those generally reported by the public.”

It said Operation Thor, which targeted burglaries, has had an impact on many types of crime.

It said that while burglary levels remained lower than pre-Operation Thor levels, other crime groups were at a higher level, including both drug possession and drugs supply, minor assault, and assault causing harm as well as theft from the person and theft of a bicycle.

The figures show the 14% increase in property crimes nationally, included a 23% jump in the Eastern region, a 16% increase in both the Southern and Western regions and a 13% rise in the Dublin region.

The 16% rise nationally in crimes against the person includes a 20% jump in the Eastern region, an 18% increase in the Western region, a 16% rise in the Northern region and a 15% rise in both Dublin and the Southern region.

The 17% increase in criminal damage nation includes a 36% jump in the Western region and a 22% rise in the Eastern region, while the 10% rise in public order offences is dominated by a 25% surge in Dublin.

The crime trends could feature at the authority’s next public meeting with the commissioner on September 28. The authority expects to receive the Garda homicide report before that meeting. The authority has criticised the delay in getting it.

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.