Galway crime levels consistently below average

Galway is the only area in the country with a major urban centre that comes in the bottom half of the national crime rate rankings, a major City Council report has pointed out.

The City Local Economic and Community Plan for 2015 to 2021, said that Galway had consistently recorded ‘below average’ crime levels for most categories of offences.

“The overall number of recorded crimes in Galway has fallen by 28% since 2008, one of the largest reductions in the country.

“This is supported by the Galway Hub Development Index (2012) that reports a lower than average crime rate in Galway compared to the other eight Gateway hubs,” the Community Plan report states.

The report – presented to the City Council last week by Senior Executive Officer, Liam Hanrahan – also pointed out that Galway was ‘average or below average’ for the four main causes of mortality and suicide nationally.

Garda Chief Superintendent, Tom Curley, told the Galway City Tribune that while recent crime figure levels were encouraging, it was absolutely crucial for both the Gardai and the community, not to foster any sense of complacency on the issue.

“We [the Gardai] are being given more resources to do our job but what is absolutely central to our crime prevention policy is the input of local communities, families and individuals,” said Chief Supt. Curley.

He said that the National Anti-Burglary Strategy was based on five main pillars – advice, crime prevention, education, detection and a multi-agency approach.

“We do have to be particularly mindful of any increase in heroin use in the city area. Anywhere across the world where heroin use increases, one of the inevitable consequences is an increase in robberies and shoplifting as addicts feed their addiction,” said Mr. Curley.

He pointed out that as an indicative figure, burglaries in the Galway area so far in 2015 were down approximately 7% on the same period last year, but again he cautioned against any complacency on statistics like that.

“Anyone that has been a victim of burglary or robbery will be well aware of what a disturbing experience this can be. However with the aid of local communities and the general public, we can make real progress in keeping crime levels as low as possible,” said Chief Supt. Curley.