Some members of the Expert Group on Crime Statistics set up by the Minister for Justice have questioned the "quality, reliability and accuracy" of Garda crime figures. Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Their strong concerns emerged yesterday in a minority report from the group, on the same day as the latest data from the Garda showed a further drop in serious crime.
Mr McDowell published the expert group's majority and minority reports yesterday, along with provisional figures from the Garda Síochána for the second quarter of 2004. These showed a fall of 10 per cent in crimes compared to the same period last year.
The majority of the expert group, chaired by Mr David Kennedy, former chief executive of Aer Lingus, proposed setting up a central crime statistics unit within the Department of Justice.
The minority, including leading criminologist Dr Ian O'Donnell, said this was premature until the quality of the existing data was established. The group had failed to do this, the minority report said, adding that it could "come to no conclusion about the quality, reliability and accuracy of Garda data."
Mr McDowell announced the setting up of a criminal justice statistics unit yesterday, but within the Central Statistics Office. "I want to set up a unit manifestly independent of me and of the gardaí," he told The Irish Times.
This would obtain information from the Director of Public Prosecutions, the prison, courts and probation services, and from victim surveys. "There will be an obligation on the Garda Síochána to provide all information to this unit in the Garda Bill," he said.
Following a suggestion from the DPP, he said he would set up a high level consultative committee involving his Department, the Garda, the DPP, and the probation and prison services to consider criminal justice policy in general and co-ordinate responses to problems.
The overall number of "headline" crimes was down by 10 per cent for the second quarter of 2004, compared with the same period last year, according to yesterday's data. This included a 20 per cent fall in murders, a 19 per cent fall in serious assaults and a 20 per cent fall in sexual offences. But "rape of a female" was up by 77 per cent and firearms offences were also up significantly. The Minister said there had also been a cut in the incidence of robbery of cash in transit, due to effective Garda operations and new measures by those engaged in this work.
One section of the group's majority report, supported by the minority, recommends that resources be provided to monitor the quality and consistency of inputs to the Garda records system, PULSE, and that the Department of Justice conduct research into the collation of information by the Garda.
But the majority did not recommend any change to the counting rules used by the Garda (which included the "Principal Offence" rule where lesser offences in the same incident are not recorded). Nor did it recommend change in the division of offences into "headline" and "non-headline", as this would create a further discontinuity in the statistics, it said.
The minority said some of the group's terms of reference were not met, specifically the examination of the Garda's collation of information on crime. "The group can come to no conclusion about the quality, reliability and accuracy of Garda data," it said. It was critical of the Garda in failing to respond to a position paper furnished to the force last December by the time the report was prepared in March.
Mr McDowell said yesterday he was neutral on the views of the two groups. He agreed with the minority, however, on the need to abolish the distinction between headline and non-headline offences, pointing out that "headline" offences included shoplifting, while "non-headline" included having a knife and public-order offences.