Fall in crime figures welcomed

Clare’s Garda Chief Superintendent, John Kerin, speaks to The Clare Champion following the release of Clare’s crime ­statistics for the first half of 2012 by the Central Statistics Office.

The Clare Garda Division is showing a 27% decrease in crime for the first six months of 2012 compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office this week.
The decline represents detected crimes across 13 broad categories of offences, of which 11, according to Chief Superintendent Kerin, are specifically crime-related. He explained that within these 11 categories, the Clare Garda Division is either down in seven of them by very small numbers and up in four by very small numbers.
“Of the four that are up, they are only up by a total of 27 crimes and of those that are down, they are down by 54,” he said.
Speaking about the figures, Chief Superintendent Kerin said, “If you take into account that we have lost 44 gardaí of all ranks in the last two years, our budgets to investigate crime have been reduced substantially and we have issues with transport and various things so given the context on which we are operating, I believe that they are very good figures. In saying that, I’m not blasé about them. I’m unhappy that there is crime but I’m confident there is even more we can do and we’re working hard towards achieving even better crime figures.”
The chief superintendent highlighted that a number of operations and strategies initiated in Clare have been very successful and have played a part in the reduction in crime in the county.
“We are running this operation here in Clare, Operation Aimsear, where we are targeting the 10 or 15 most serious and recidivist-type criminals in the division and we’ve had quite a lot of success against them in recent months,” he revealed.
“We’ve also increased the number of crime-preventative checkpoints we are carrying out in the division. On average, for the first three months of the year, we did 340 checkpoints per month. In April we upped that to 650, we got it up to 750 in May and we had 860 for the month of June. So we are combining that with road traffic enforcement but I am firmly convinced that the high visibility and the targeting of these top 10 to 15 criminals has certainly played a significant role in the reduction in crime. What I keep saying to people is, if they assess things, as they should, they don’t want gardaí in garda stations, they want them out and about on the streets and that’s my ambition in Clare and I’ll continue with that,” he said.
Chief Superintendent Kerin explained why there may have been increases in some of the crime categories.
“In the weapons and explosive offences, we have had an increase of nine offences but we were down 44%, or 36 such crimes, at the end of 2011. I just did an assessment of them and of those crimes this year, 22 have been for possession of offensive weapons. I suppose it’s only true to say that increase comes about from the Traveller feuds and from stopping and searching, in the main. Two were for the possession of explosive substances and two were for possession of firearms,” he said.
Speaking about ongoing Traveller feuding in Ennis, the Chief Superintendent said it has been “a serious drain on Garda manpower”.
“We do wish that the people concerned would see sense and all that’s going to happen to any of them is there are people going to get hurt, invariably themselves or their families and people are going to end up in jail. It’s pointless, there’s nothing to be gained from it, for the good reputation in the town and for tourism in the town they need to cop themselves on. It’s gaining nothing for no-one. It’s senseless,” he said.
Theft and related offences are also up by 13 instances so far this year.
“We’ve a total of 540, now that’s every theft under the sun. At the end of last year, we were down by 12%, which was 147 of a decrease. The most significant increase is in the sub-category of thefts is from shops, which have increased by 34 offences. I believe that’s maybe reflective of the recession and how people are worse off and there are husbands and wives who are trying to feed their family and they are stealing for them. I’m not condoning it but it might explain it. It is probably the only significant increase we have had for the year,” he said.
There have been 10 recorded robbery, extortion, hijacking and related offences for the first six months, representing a gain of three. Of those, five were robberies from establishments and three have already been successfully prosecuted. According to the Chief Superintendent, the two outstanding robberies include the recent robbery of the AIB bank in Kilkee and the robbery of the Ladbrooks Bookies in the Turnpike in late April of this year. Of the other robberies, which included robberies of the person, there have been successful prosecutions in four.
Controlled drug offences are also up by 2% in Clare, where there are 137 recorded offences, which goes against national trends. Of those offences, 33 are for the more serious offence of sale or supply of drugs. However, it was stressed that at the end of last year Clare had a 34% reduction in drugs offences, having been down by 141 detected offences.
Homicide offences, assault and related offences, fraud and related offences are also down on last year, as is criminal damage to property and the environment. A total of 94 people have been detected for drink driving in the first six months of 2012, which is down 16 or 15%, and traffic collisions are also down by 31 for the year to date.
Chief Superintendent Kerin complimented his divisional traffic, unit saying while people have grievances with them about their enforcement of the road traffic legislation “the facts are that Clare has had only one fatal traffic accident”.
“I think there is only one other garda division in the country that has just one for the first six months of the year and we have had only one for the whole of last year so again, while people may be aggrieved with them [the traffic corps] for being stopped and checked, if we can save lives, then that’s what we’re there for,” he concluded.