Shocking crime reoffender figures for Louth released

Figures released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) this week, have revealed that two thirds of the crime incidents recorded in Louth on An Garda Síochána's PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) system last year, were were carried out by suspected reoffenders.

A detected re-offending incident is a crime incident that has been recorded on the An Garda Síochána's crime reporting system, PULSE, where an individual that has been detected (identified as a suspect) has also been detected to a different historical incident also recorded on PULSE.

The CSO release, Re-offending by Detected Incidents 2024, show that 4,829 crime incidents were recorded on the PULSE system in the Louth Garda Division in 2024. Of the 4,829 incidents, 3,154 (66% or two thirds) involved suspected offenders who also had a link to at least one previous crime incident.

1,675 incidents, or 34% of the total, were associated with suspected offenders who did not have any previous PULSE detections.

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Nationally in 2024, 61% of detected PULSE crime incidents involved suspected offenders who also had a link to at least one previous crime incident. The proportion of detected PULSE incidents linked to re-offending had marginally increased from 57% in 2019 to 61% in 2024.

Crime incidents relating to Theft, Fraud, Robbery, and Deception (46%) and Coercion, Intimidation or Exploitation (41%) were most likely to involve a suspected offender previously linked to the same type of incident.

One in five (20%) detected crime incidents reported during 2024 were detected to suspected offenders who had been linked to a separate crime incident less than one month earlier.