- COVID pandemic continues to see welcome decreases in most crime groups
- Minister encourages public to take vital crime prevention steps as society reopens and risk of many types of crime increases
17 June 2021
The Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys TD, has noted today’s publication of Recorded Crime Statistics by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The period covered under this release are the 12 months to the end of March 2021, with the comparison period being the 12 months to the end of March 2020. As such, this covers a period where, to various levels, COVID lockdowns have been in place.
Minister Humphreys said,
“COVID -19 continues to deliver a significant interruption to crime patterns. The number of criminal offences recorded by An Garda Síochána has fallen sharply in most crime categories in the year to Quarter 1 2021. This is welcome news. I would note in particular the significant decreases in burglary offences which are down 45.4%, theft and related offences which are down 30.7% and robbery offences which are down 26.4%.
“With most people spending so much time at home, shopping limited to essentials, and movement restricted to necessary travel and exercise, the opportunities available to commit such offences were obviously severely curtailed over the last year. However, as society opens back up, I would urge the public to please exercise caution and follow the simple crime prevention rules which An Garda Síochána provides to communities at garda.ie/en/crime-prevention/ in order to keep people safe and keep crime numbers low.
“Changes in people’s movements and activities can impact on the opportunities available to potential offenders and, in turn, the volume and types of crime being committed. I urge the public to report all incidents of crime to An Garda Síochána, where it will be forwarded for investigation. Crime incidents can be reported in the first instance to the local Garda station or, if more appropriate, the Garda confidential line which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 1800 666 111.”
Crimes against the person have also seen reductions. Assaults and related offences are 13.9% down. After a period of steady increases, we have seen a reduction in the reported number of sexual offences, down 3.1%. Dangerous and negligent acts are also down.
The Minister added,
“While I welcome the decrease in reported sexual offences, I would continue to encourage anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault to come forward and report the incident to An Garda Síochána. Justice Plan 2021 commits to having a Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence agreed before the end of the year. This new Strategy will have a significant focus on service delivery, and will place a priority on prevention and reduction, and will include a National Preventative Strategy.
We are continuing to prioritise our response to the needs of victims of sexual violence. This includes the nationwide rollout of the Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSU) within An Garda Síochána which means there are now specially trained officers available nationwide who are responsible for engagement with and interviewing vulnerable victims. New legislation to introduce preliminary trial hearings for the first time in Irish law has recently been enacted and this is another important step in the overall implementation of ‘Supporting a Victims Journey’, our plan to support victims of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence.”
While many offences are down due to the pandemic, there are some crime groups which have seen increases. With greater Garda checks during the lockdown period, there have been increase in certain offence types that are typically detected through increased enforcement. This includes an increase in possession of drugs for sale and supply, up 19% and for personal use, up 4.1%. We have also seen a significant increase in the cultivation and manufacture of drugs (up 119%). Driving under the influence of drugs has also significantly increased (up 76.9%).
Minister Humphreys said,
“The significant increase in recorded incidents of controlled drug offences is a cause for concern, yet it also reflects the increased number of Gardaí on the frontline and the concentrated work of the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau. The Government and An Garda Síochána will continue to target this activity due to its incredible damage to families, to the community and to the individuals concerned. An Garda Síochána, in partnership with other relevant agencies nationally and internationally, are having significant success in disrupting drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs in Ireland.”
As more people are working and shopping online during the pandemic, fraud offences have increased in that period (up 13.7%). The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau is the main Bureau of An Garda Síochána tasked with tackling economic crime, including fraud. The Bureau operates on a national basis and provides specialist support and guidance to national fraud investigators. The main challenges facing the Bureau are the rapidly changing environment in which those perpetrating economic crime operate including increased technology usage and advancement, more complex criminality and questionable business practices.
The CSO release also includes breaches of the COVID-19 regulations. A total of 10,459 offences were recorded on PULSE for breaches of COVID-19 regulations in Q1 2021. This is a marked increase on 1,090 such offences recorded during 2020 (304 in Q2 2020, 262 in Q3 2020, 524 in Q4 2020), and reflects the introduction of a new system of Fixed Payment Notices in respect of breaches of COVID-19 regulations in December 2020.
The Minister concluded,
“I want to take this opportunity to again express my gratitude to An Garda Síochána for its work and particularly during the course of the pandemic. COVID-19 has created a range of unforeseen and unprecedented challenges for An Garda Síochána in implementing the regulations and keeping our communities protected from the spread of the pandemic. Yet these challenges have been met on top of existing duties to maintain order and continue neighbourhood policing operations.”
ENDS…/
Notes for Editors:
The full statistics can be accessed at: www.cso.ie
Deferral of the official crime statistic publication by the CSO.
In early 2018, the CSO announced its decision to resume publication of recorded crime statistics in the first six months of 2018. However, as PULSE data – on which the CSO is wholly dependent - is subject to a number of separate ongoing quality reviews and concerns that extended beyond just homicide data, the CSO made the decision that recorded crime statistics will be published in a new category entitled: “Under Reservation”.
“Under Reservation”
According to the CSO, the classification of “Under Reservation” is in keeping with other jurisdictions and other statistical domains. This indicates that, while the statistics have been determined to be of sufficient quality to allow publication, ongoing issues mean that the quality does not yet meet the higher standard required of official statistics by the CSO.
Criteria for lifting the categorisation
The CSO is engaging with An Garda Síochána to set out the criteria for the lifting of the reservation. These criteria are not confined to homicide data but will address quality concerns across a broader range of issues. They will address issues such as data governance, training, crime data recording procedures and the auditing and monitoring of data quality.
CSO Review Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics
On 11 December 2018, the CSO published a third review of the quality of Recorded Crime statistics. The latest review is based on data recorded on the PULSE database in respect of crimes reported to An Garda Síochána (AGS) in 2017.
The review found considerable development in the quality of Recorded Crime statistics since the publication of the last CSO quality review in 2016, including:
- A marked reduction in the non-recording of reported crime incidents on PULSE
- A reduction in misclassification errors
- Improvement made in criminal incidents being recorded in a timely manner on PULSE
- Improvement made in the recording of criminal incident records subsequently marked invalid
The scope of this review expanded on previous CSO reviews to include data quality concerns arising from the examination of homicide data records during 2017 such as the correct application of crime counting principles. The CSO has also undertaken, for the first time, to assess the quality of statistics relating to crimes with a discriminatory motive and domestic abuse. The CSO concludes that further work is needed to improve the accuracy of recording in these areas, and work is underway in that regard.