Burglaries, Public Order Offences and Sexual Offences see significant increase in Dundalk

Burglaries, Thefts from Shops, Thefts from Vehicles, Robberies from Persons, Assaults Causing Harm, Robberies from Establishments, Public Order Offences and Sexual Offences in Dundalk  all showed an increase compared with the same period last year, the Dundalk JPC (Joint Policing Committee) heard at the March meeting on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Thefts from Persons, Minor Assaults, Criminal Damage Offences, Sale/Supply of Drugs and Possession of Drugs for Own Use all saw a decrease compared with the same period in 2022.

Inspector John Boyle presented the figures to the March meeting of Dundalk JPC (Joint Policing Committee).

Burglaries rose from 94 to 137 while Thefts from Shops also rose from 365 in 2022 to 436 in the same period this year.

Thefts from Vehicles rose from 67 to 75, Robbery from Establishments rose from 1 to 8.

Robberies from Persons saw a significant increase from 3 to 17 while Assaults Causing Harm rose marginally from 118 to 123.

There were over 100 more Public Order Offences so far this year compared to the same period in 2022 rising from 530 to 633. Inspector John Boyle noted that there have been targeted operations in the town on Friday and Saturday nights in particular, which may account for the greater number of arrests. 

Sexual Offences also increased standing at 48 compared to 32 last year. 

Offences that decreased included Thefts from Persons which halved from 8 to 4.

Minor Assaults decreased slightly from 157 to 149, as did Criminal Damage falling from 388 to 383.

Drugs offences also decreased with Sale/Supply Offences decreasing from 78 to 54 and Possession for Own Use statistics falling dramatically from 395 to 205.

Additionally, Inspector Boyle revealed that there were also 130 section 23 searches and 43 searches under warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

There were also 22 arrests for Possession of Offensive weapons.

When it comes to road traffic offences gardai recorded 33 cases of Driving While Intoxicated (3 drug related) and 4 collisions resulting in serious injury.

Sean Farrell, a Public Participation Network representative on the committee, requested that figures for  2019 also be included in the report to give a broader and more accurate view on how crime figures locally are trending.

He noted that some of the current figures appear to have jumped significantly, but that it must be noted that the country was under Covid restrictions in 2021 which may give a false impression as to the scale of the increases.

Fianna Fail Councillor Emma Coffey asked that statistics for prosecutions of domestic violence offences be added to the JPC Crime Report stats saying that she has recently noticed an increase in prosecutions in her work as a solicitor and how she believed that the figures would prove informative to the public and give greater confidence to potential victims to come forward.

“A lot of people are reluctant to report breaches of [domestic violence barring] orders and of non success and the public nature of a criminal prosecution. So I do think it would be beneficial from a community aspect that those statistics are included and I would ask that they would be included,” she said. 

In response, Inspector John Boyle said he would look at the matter and hopefully get the statistics included in future reports, saying: 

“In terms of domestic violence prosecutions, people can be utterly assured of the confidentiality with which they are treated during [the process] and I think in fairness to the court staff and Judge McKiernan there’s a high degree of sensitivity involved in the prosecution of those cases.” 

In response to a question from Independent Councillor Maeve Yore regarding the  increase in sexual offences; Chief Superintendent Alan McGovern said that there has been an increase in gardai assigned to the Divisional Protective Services Unit and that they have recently had a number of successes.

He went on to say that:

“We are encouraging people to come forward, many of them [cases] are historical unfortunately, but we are dealing with them in a more professional way than maybe we would have in terms of having experts in the area.”