Burglaries soar by over 60%

BURGLARIES are up by 63 per cent for the year in yet another hugely-worrying crime trend in Kerry.

“IT’S the one thing really bugging us in Kerry...I can assure you burglaries are taking up a serious amount of our time as we do everything we can to police what is a despicable crime – people breaking into other people’s homes,” Chief Supt Tom Myers told the JPC on Friday.

197 burglaries were committed between January and August 31 of this year – up from 121 in the same period last year. Aggravated burglaries rose by 25 per cent; from four last year to five so far this year. One of the factors behind the surge in burglaries was that last year was relatively quiet. “The trend in 2016 was so low it makes the 2017 figures look exorbitant.”

However, the detection rate in Kerry is higher than the national average and this partly accounts for the increase. And the detections are leading to prosecutions with 47 accused of the crime before Kerry courts at present.

“We’re putting a lot of our time and efforts into intelligence gathering, street checkpoints, the targeting of repeat offenders and a lot of offenders are now on curfews.”

The JPC also heard that the force in Kerry is being bolstered by more gardaí – 12 new recruits have been appointed so far with up to six more positions promised for December.