Property crime is a drain on resources with 1,803 incidents

PROPERTY crime is one of the biggest drains on garda resources with 1,803 incidents recorded so far this year in the county.

This type of crime however appears to be decreasing as 2,107 cases were reported in 2017, a change of 14 per cent.

Four cases of robbery from an establishment were reported, one more than last tear, while robbery from a person dropped by one to nine.

There was no change in the level of aggravated burglary which rests at five while there were 407 burglaries compared with 602 in 2017.

Theft from a person was down to 18 from 20 and theft from a vehicle is at 342, compared with 514 in 2017. Detection rates in this category are up by seven per cent.

Chief Supt Quirke said that the message was not getting across enough to get people to lock their cars outside their homes.

There were five thefts from vehicles in one night in Baltinglass recently and none of them were locked. People continue to leave very valuable items such as laptops or phones in their cars without locking them,’ he said.

Theft of other property is up by eight per cent to 419 and a nine per cent increase was recorded for the unauthorised taking of vehicle which is at 63 so far this year.

The theft of bicycles has dropped 19 per cent to 64 while theft from shops is up 11 per cent to 450.

Robbery from an establishment was up by once incident to four the county, with no change in Baltinglass where there were no incidents while Wicklow cases were up by one to three in Wicklow.

Detections are up by 33 per cent across the county in this area.

There were nine cases of robbery from person recorded this year, one less than in 2017, none in Baltinglass, eight in Bray and one in Wicklow and detections are at 22 per cent.

There were five incidents of aggravated burglary in the county so far this year, three in Bray and two in Wicklow and none have been detected to date.

Burglary detection rates are up by one per cent, with 407 reported in the county this year, 71 in Baltinglass, 209 in Bray and 127 in Wicklow.