Galway crime falls by a fifth as burglars put behind bars

Date Published: 05-Dec-2011

By Dara Bradley, Connacht Sentinel

Crime in Galway city and Salthill has fallen by more than a fifth this year thanks to a Garda crackdown on burglaries, provisional local Garda figures reveal.

The Galway Garda crime report up to the middle of November showed that a total of 6,566 incidents of crime were reported in the city, a reduction of 22% compared with the same period last year.

There were 401 city burglaries this year, 24% fewer than the same period to mid-November last year, which added to the falling rates of crime in Galway and Salthill.

Chief Superintendent Dónal Ó Cualáin said that as the economy continues to slump, the Garda would expect a spike in burglaries but this has not been the experience in Galway.

He said Galway and the West of Ireland generally had ‘bucked the trend’ on burglaries compared with the rest of the State. Chief Supt Ó Cualáin said he had been expecting an ‘upsurge in property related crime’ this year but that hadn’t happened.

He said Galway Gardaí had put several ‘organised and professional’ burglars out of business and behind bars this year, which has contributed to the burglaries reduction.

“Still, 401 burglaries is too many . . . when there are 401 injured parties, it’s no comfort to them to know that burglaries are falling,” he said.

Thefts from persons were up by 5% to 62 – this figure includes the theft of mobile phones, purses and handbags at night. He said in many instances of these sorts of thefts, a missing mobile phone is reported stolen to Gardaí in order to satisfy insurance claims with phone companies but the reality is the phones may have just been lost rather than stolen.

Chief Supt Ó Cualáin praised city businesses for their continued co-operation in helping to stamp out thefts from shops, which fell by 9% to 468 incidents this year. Thefts from vehicles fell by 24% to 116 and ‘other’ thefts fell by 38% to 270.

Chief Supt Ó Cualáin said that detection rates, rather than reported crime rates, were above average in Galway.

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