Property crimes increase by a third in county Tipperary since beginning of the year

The significant drop in property thefts in county Tipperary during the Covid-19 pandemic are a trend of the past as latest crime statistics show the number of these type of crimes rose by a third across the county in the first nine months of the year.

Lockdowns and restrictions on movements during the pandemic had the silver lining of less criminal activity, particularly in property crime.

But crime figures for the county between January and October 3, presented to Tipperary’s Joint Policing Committee by Tipperary Garda Division’s outgoing Chief Supt Derek Smart, shows the lifting of the pandemic restrictions has brought with it a rebound increase in property crimes.

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He outlined how across the division there were 1,171 cases of property crime, namely burglaries, robberies and thefts, reported between January 1 and October 3, compared to 880 cases in the same period in 2021. This represented a rise of 33%.

The increase was highest in the Tipperary Town Garda District where property crime rose by 49% from 96 between January and October 2021 to 143 in the first nine months of this year. The number of burglaries in the district jumped by 80%.

Meanwhile, in Clonmel Garda District, the number of property crimes rose by 34% from 292 to 392, though burglary cases fell by 11%. In contrast, the number of property crimes reported in Cahir Garda District, which includes Cashel town, increased by 5%.

Chief Supt Smart said after the Covid lockdowns and restrictions it was expected that these types of crimes would rise and they certainly had. And he pointed out that these types of crimes will naturally increase at this time of the year with the hours of 4pm to 10pm, Fridays and Saturdays the busiest times.

Meanwhile, he detailed how crimes against the person ranging from murder and assaults to harassment, rose by 14% across the county in the first nine months of the year, which translates to 497 incidents compared to 435 over the same period last year.

In the south of the county, Cahir Garda District experienced the sharpest 59% rise in these crimes from 49 in the first nine months of 2021 to 78 over the same period this year. Assault crimes rose by a staggering 69% in the Cahir District during that period.

Tipperary Town Garda District, however, experienced a 10% drop in crimes against the person with a 14% fall in assaults, while in Clonmel Garda District, the 171 crimes against the person recorded in the first nine months of this year was the same as the same period last year, though reported assaults fell by 9%.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath disputed the system for gathering crime statistics,

He claimed the crime figures were not accurate and maintained the Central Statistics Office also had concerns about these statistics.

He claimed there was a serious issue with complaints made to the gardaí not being logged. Alongside this, crimes were not being reported because some people were afraid to make a complaint with some being threatened by criminals to stop them making statements to gardaí.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose told the JPC meeting she didn’t believe for one minute the crime figures for Clonmel were accurate. “I often get calls from people afraid to ring the gardaí because they don’t want to give their names and are afraid of repercussions. That is a very big concern.”

Chief Supt Smart responded that the statistics could only reflect those crimes the gardaí receive information about.

He said it is often the case that a victim will make a complaint but decline to follow up with a statement.

In relation to Deputy McGrath’s complaint about calls making complaints not being logged, He said he had no way of going back and checking this as the gardaí are no longer allowed to record calls that come into a garda station.

He was concerned that people were afraid to report crimes and urged JPC members who knew such people to let the gardaí know and they could arrange to meet them. They didn’t have to call to a garda station.