A “rampage” by a number of young criminals has seen burglaries surge by almost 30% in County Galway so far this year.
And the rate of detection for the Galway Garda Division is less than one in every five burglaries.
Meanwhile, speeding offences are up almost 80%, drink driving up 8% and road accidents causing serious injury up 73% in what was described as a “mixed bag” of statistics presented to the quarterly County Galway Joint Policing Committee meeting this week.
In the first eight months of this year, there were 211 burglaries in the county – that figure is up 29% from 165 for the same period last year.
Included in the burglaries so far this year were Clifden (7); Tuam (47); Loughrea (64) and Ballinasloe (36).
The head of the Galway Garda Division, Chief Superintendent Tom Curley, told the meeting that the statistics had been skewed by a number of young people – currently before the courts – who had gone on a crime spree.
“It was a crime spree by a number of people, especially in relation to Loughrea, we had a number of young people who are currently before the courts.
“It’s amazing how two or three people can go along and rampage in a particular area and then stats that are very good see a huge increase.
“Unfortunately, burglaries are up, but hopefully in the next three months, we’ll see them levelling out” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt Curley stated at the meeting that neither he nor his managers ever asked rank-and-file Gardaí to inflate figures from drink-driving checkpoints.
“As Chief Superintendent, I never asked anybody to go out and create false records. My management team, including myself, has never asked any rank of An Garda Síochána to inflate figures,” he said.
See full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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