CSO recorded crime figures for North Cork show reductions across many categories

THE latest set of recorded crime figures for the Cork North Garda division have made for fairly positive reading, with decreases in the number of reported crimes across a variety of categories

The figures for the first quarter of 2020 released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), detail the number of crimes reported during the three-month period across the division, which covers Mallow, Fermoy, Midleton, Cobh and Youghal.

This was the latest quarterly release following the decision to resume publication of crime statistics under using the category of ‘Statistics Under Reservation’.

This category was introduced to highlight concerns regarding the quality of underlying data from An Garda Síochána’s PULSE database.

The CSO has previously said the categorisation would remain in place until such a time as the CSO was “satisfied that the level of accuracy and completeness of the underlying data was of sufficient quality”.

One particularly notable figure was the reduction in the number of theft and related incidents, which dropped to 181 a reduction of 50 compared to the first quarter of 2019. The number of burglaries and related offences also dropped from 69 to 57.

There was also a significant reduction in the number of sexual related offences, compared to the same period last year, with the number dropping from 34 to 17. This represented the lowest figure for that particular category since 2011.

Other categories that also saw reductions included assaults from 136 down to 110, fraud, deception and related offences from 56 to 46 and criminal damage from 89 to 76.

There was also a marginal drop in the number of disorderly conduct-related offences from 188 to 181 and the

However, despite repeated high-profile warnings about the dangers of driving under the influence it still seems that the message is not hitting home with some motorists in north Cork. The latest figures showed a sharp increase in the number of drug driving detections from 19 to 35 when compared to a year earlier. To put the worrying trend into further context last year’s quarter one total was the only time since 2009 that the Q1 total had gone into double figures.

While the comparison figure for drink driving incidents stood at 62 (representing a year-onyear increase of 3) it was still well below the 2008 high of 168.

One other category that saw an increase was controlled drug offences from 110 to 133. Included within this were offences for possession for sale or supply (up from 17 to 25) and possession for personal use (up from 88 to 102).

To see the full figures follow the link on the home page at www.cso.ie.