Public order offences up over 61%

The Chief Superintendent of the Cavan Monaghan Garda Division says a sharp increase in public order offences reflects the opening up of society post Covid.

Chief Supt Alan McGovern made the comments at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) online last Friday evening. Crime figures released for the last quarter of 2021 show public order offences numbered 129 - up 61.3% on the same period the previous year when 80 were recorded.

“This is consistent with the return of the night-time economy. From my experience within the organisation, alcohol will play a significant part in these public order incidents.”

Crime prevention awareness

Chief Supt McGovern said the 62% increase in burglaries (from 24 to 39) will see an escalation of crime prevention awareness. “We will be increasing our campaign around awareness in relational to security through our crime prevention officer,” he told JPC members.

Though there was a significant statistical reduction in the drug possession for sale or supply, the Garda divisional head said there was an increase in drug offences relating to possession for personal use and cultivation.

Sexual offences in the quarter increased more than three-fold from four in 2020 to 13 in Q4 of 2021: “As you are all aware our divisional protective services unit, lead by Inspector Niall McKiernan, is doing great work. This has encouraged people to come forward. We hope there is a better platform for people who may not have felt confident to do so in the past.”

There has been an increase in drink driving detections, but drug driving cases reduced by four (from 20 to 16) quarter on quarter.

There was a small increase in the number of weapons possession charges, from six to seven, but the chief super said this was locally significant: “An important factor is our detection rate when we compare it to the regional average across the North Western region. We have one of the highest detection rates in our division.”