Crime figures in the county are down significantly on 2011 according to a new Garda report which was presented to the Joint Policing Committee at County Buildings on Monday.
The report showed that despite a drop in Garda numbers there was a 46 per cent drop in crime from January 1 to February 29. The figure excludes the areas of Salthill and Galway city.
While overall crime was down in the county, burglaries are up by 17 per cent which led to members of the JPC airing serious concerns about the repercussions of the drop in Garda personnel and patrol cars in the county.
Councillor Tim Broderick criticised the gardai saying that resources are not being made available. “It will come back to haunt us, we won’t have enough gardai to police the country,” he said.
Councillors unanimously called for better visibility of rural Garda patrols to deter potential burglars and to put residents at ease at Monday morning’s meeting.
Dep Éamon Ó Cuív spoke about the benefits of gardai living in local communities. “I’d rather have one Garda living in the area, than three or four living 30 miles away in the nearest city,” he said.
He said having a local Garda is more comforting to rural communities, and the Garda deployment model was an issue. “There are more gardai now than there were during ‘The Troubles’,” he said, “but they are being more centralised.”
Garda superintendent Marie Skehill said that despite a reduction in the force, the county is still well policed. “There is an embargo, but we need to use what we have. Numbers may be down but there are still adequate numbers,” she told the meeting.
An upcoming change in Garda shift patterns will result in a better Garda presence and an overlap during critical times, according to Superintendent Skehill.
Questions were raised from members of the committee over the amount of drugs seized in the county, and whether the figure had dropped due to staffing levels.
Superintendent Skehill assured members that there had been no reduction in staffing of the Garda drugs unit across the city. Cocaine to the value of €18,160 and ecstasy worth €6,700 were seized along with €118,870 of cannabis and €350 worth of heroin in the two month period.
