Bray People

DRUGS ISSUE HIGHLIGHTE­D TO GARDAI

- By DEBORAH COLEMAN

THE SO- CALLED ‘war on drugs’ was a primary concern of members of County Wicklow Join Policing Committee which met on Monday.

Chief Superinten­dent John Paul Quirke, pictured below, conceded that ‘ there isn’t a town or village in the country that doesn’t have an issue with drugs’, in response to the concerns of councillor­s in Wicklow and Arklow.

Cllr Gail Dunne claimed that the battle is being lost.

‘We are losing that battle. Every weekend, I see people around the town taking drugs. It’s horrendous,’ he said.

He said that the problem requires a dedicated drugs unit in Wicklow Town and asked Chief Supt Quirke why this is not already in place.

The senior garda outlined that every member has the same powers in relation to drug crime and said that a sergeant and eight new gardaí have been allocated to Wicklow in recent weeks, who have been briefed on local drug-related activity and the concern that surrounds it.

In Arklow, Cllr Tommy Annesley told of a man seen in a pub beer garden selling drugs from a rucksack ‘ like a supermarke­t’.

‘I witnessed this and I believe that when they sell drugs this way, and have come in from other areas, it is very difficult for gardaí to track them down. Your members need to take a serious look at Arklow,’ he said.

The comments come as crime rate and detection figures for this year up until June were circulated at the meeting.

Possession of drugs for sale or supply are down by 71 per cent in Bray this year so far, while in Baltinglas­s they are up from one incident to three (+200%) and up by two to nine in Wicklow.

Possession for personal use saw higher figures with

182 cases recorded, 48 per cent of which have been detected so far.

Last year 95 per cent of personal use cases were prosecuted.

Under the category of criminal damage, detections are down by 16 per cent so far this year.

There have been 26 cases reported in Baltinglas­s so far this year compared with 129 in Bray and 65 in Wicklow. Public order incidents are on the increase in Baltinglas­s and Bray with jumps of 50 per cent and six per cent respective­ly compared with a reduction of 25 per cent in Wicklow.

Increases, division-wide were reported in the categories of robbery of an establishm­ent which has already risen from two last year to four, so far this year.

Detection rates are up by 50 per cent. Theft from vehicle, so far is down by 51 per cent while burglary is down by 42 per cent.

There were no aggravated burglaries recorded in Wicklow division last year, or so far this year, while there have been two in Bray so far this year, and none in Baltinglas­s, compared with two last year.

In terms of more serious crimes, there have been two murders in the county this year compared with none in 2017 and there have been five rapes recorded, compared with seven last year.

Eighteen cases of sexual assault are detailed for 2018 so far compared with 29 in 2017 while assault causing harm is up from 23 to 26 and minor assault cases have reached the figure of 127 for this year, compared with a total of 140 in 2017.

A total of 635 motorists have undergone mandatory intoxicant testing (MIT) at checkpoint­s so far this year while 3,927 roadside breath tests were conducted.

There have been 65 driving while intoxicate­d offences this year, while 1,757 speeding offences have been recorded and 221 mobile phone offences.

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