There has been a fall in public confidence in An Garda Síochána in recent years, according to the latest crime victimisation survey from the Central Statistics Office. Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports.
While in 1998 over 63 per cent of those surveyed said their opinion of local gardaí was "good" or "very good", this fell to just over 56 per cent in 2003.
The percentage rating them as "poor" or "very poor" rose from 9.5 to 11.5. The number giving no opinion rose from zero to almost 4 per cent.
The number of people reporting crimes to An Garda Síochána also fell between 1998 and 2003, with a wide variation between different categories of crime. The level of reporting ranged from just over 90 per cent to under 40 per cent.
The survey was carried out as part of the quarterly Household Survey in the last quarter of 2003, and is compared with a similar survey in 1998.
Similar surveys are planned at two-yearly intervals in future, and the CSO will also be asked to take on a new criminal justice statistics unit, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, announced earlier this week.
The lack of public confidence in An Garda Síochána was most evident among victims of crime. with 24 per cent of all victims rating the gardaí as "poor" or "very poor".
Young people, the unemployed, and those living in Dublin or the mid-west, were most likely to have a negative attitude.
The crime most likely to be reported to the police was vehicle theft, where 90.5 per cent of such instances were reported in 2003. This is a drop of 4 per cent from the 1998 figure. The crime least likely to be reported is vandalism, with only 38.9 per cent of all acts of vandalism reported.
This is only a small drop, of less than 1 per cent, on the 1998 figure.
Just under 70 per cent of burglaries were reported in the last quarter of 2003, compared with 78.4 in the same period in 1998. Thefts from vehicles were reported in 59.4 per cent of cases, similar to the 1998 figure.
Only half of all bicycle thefts were reported, compared with 58 per cent five years ago.
Just over half of all assaults, 51.3 per cent, were reported, down 6 per cent in five years. Violent theft showed only a small drop in reporting, from 61.5 to 59.1 per cent, and there was actually an increase in the level of reporting of non-violent theft, from 47 to 53.9 per cent.
The reasons why crimes were not reported were generally related to the seriousness of the crime, but, in the case of vehicle theft, the fact that insurance is usually involved is a factor in the high level of reporting.
Over half of all burglaries entailed a financial loss of less than €250, and almost half of those who did not report a burglary to the gardaí said it was because it was not serious enough. However, over 35 per cent said they did not report it because they thought the gardaí could or would do nothing.
In the case of vandalism, 41 per cent said the incident was not serious enough to report. And 45 per cent said they thought the gardaí could or would do nothing.
In the case of assaults, 34.5 per cent of those assaulted did not report it because they considered it not serious enough. A further 30 per cent did not do so because they thought the gardaí could or would do nothing.
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