Large rise in robbery, theft and burglary offences in Dundalk

There was a large increase in robbery, burglary and theft and related offences recorded at Dundalk Garda Station in 2022 compared to 2021, according to figures released last Friday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the CSO release, Recorded Crime Q4 2022, which are published as Statistics Under Reservation, the three crime categories saw a sizeable increase in the number of incidents recorded at the Dundalk Garda Station.

23 robbery, extortion and hijacking offences were recorded in Dundalk in 2022, up from nine in 2021 and representing an increase of 155%.

100 burglary and related offences were recorded, up from 67 in 2021 and representing a 49% increase. 678 theft and related offences were also recorded, up from 555 in 2021 and representing a 22% increase on the previous year.

The increase in the three categories of crimes in Dundalk reflected an increase nationally in these categories.
Nationally, Theft crime rose by 41% to 65,986 incidents in 2022, which was the highest rate of increase in any crime category.
Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences rose by 19%, and Burglary & Related offences rose by 10%

There was also a sizeable increase in the number of public order and other social code offences in Dundalk in 2022.
541 incidents were recorded by Dundalk Garda Station in 2022, up from 391 in 2021, representing a rise of 38%.

Attempts/threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences increased by 12% in Dundalk last year, with 268 incidents recorded, compared to 239 in 2021.

There was also a fall however in some other type of offences recorded in Dundalk. Controlled drug offences fell by 42%, with 240 incidents recorded, compared to 416 in 2021. Fraud, deception and related offences also fell in Dundalk, with 118 recorded in 2022, compared to 168 in 2021, representing a fall of 30%.

Offences against government, justice procedures and organisation of crime fell by 21%, with 136 offences recorded in Dundalk last year, compared to 172 in 2021. Damage to property and the environment offences also fell last year, with 235 incident recorded, compared to 279 in 2021, a fall of 16%.

Nationally, similar to Dundalk, fraud crime fell by almost a third last year. There were 11,569 incidents of recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception and Related offences in 2022 and this was down by 32% or 5,461 incidents from 2021.

Most other categories of recorded crime increased in 2022 but the largest increase was in Theft and Related offences.
Among the other crime categories, the highest rates of increase were for Homicide & Related offences (+30% or +16), Robbery, Extortion and Hijacking offences (+19% or +335) and Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences which were up by 17% or 3,368 incidents. Sexual offences were up 6% or 193 incidents.

The statistics published by the CSO continue to be categorised as Under Reservation. This categorisation indicates that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO.

The CSO says that the statistics Under Reservation categorisation will remain in place until such time as the CSO is satisfied that the level of accuracy and completeness of the underlying data is of sufficient quality.