The setting up of a central crime statistics unit within the Department of Justice is the main recommendation of the majority of the Expert Group on Crime Statistics. Carol Coulter reports.
Set up by the Minister, Mr McDowell, in January 2003, the expert group was composed of representatives of the Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Central Statistics Office, the Courts Service, the National Crime Council and the Institute of Criminology in UCD. It was chaired by Mr David Kennedy, former chief executive of Aer Lingus, and its reports were published yesterday.
The unit envisaged by the majority report should have an independent advisory board made up of various agencies within the criminal justice system, and be chaired by an independent person.
It should take over from the Garda Commissioner responsibility for the publication of crime statistics. It should also draw on data from the developing IT systems in other agencies, such as the Prison Service, the Courts Service, the Office of the DPP and the Probation and Welfare Service. It should work with these services to develop integrated IT systems, leading to the development of an integrated criminal history repository system.
The report also recommends that all agencies involved in the reporting of crime statistics should be encouraged to use internationally agreed definitions when categorising crime. It also proposes that all organisations with prosecuting authority should appoint an officer with responsibility for statistics.
It endorses the Government commitment to conduct biennial national crime victimisation surveys. Until such time as new measures are in place, the majority report recommends that crime statistics should continue to be produced by An Garda Síochána, but that their publication should be separated from the Garda Annual Report.
It says resources should be provided to monitor the quality and consistency of inputs to the PULSE system, and that the Department of Justice conduct research on the collation of information on crime by the Garda. Garda statistics should be published no later than three months after the reporting period and released according to a rigidly set timetable, it said.
Changes in the way such statistics are compiled should be clearly explained, and quarterly crime reports should contain data on the method of compilation.
The report was supported by Mr Kennedy; Mr John Brosnan, Irish Prison Service; Mr Brendan Callaghan, Mr Alec Dolan, Mr David Walker and Mr Gerry Hayes, all of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Mr Joe Egan, An Garda Síochána; Mr Jim Finn, Courts Service; Mr Domhnall Murray, Office of the DPP; and Mr Aidan Punch, Central Statistics Office.