CSO audit finds more issues with Garda crime data

Nobody has been charged in connection with two-thirds of last year’s homicides, while 92 per cent of burglaries and 92 per cent of all sex crimes have yet to result in criminal charges, it has emerged.

The revelations emerge in a Central Statistics Office (CSO) audit on how the Garda records crime.

As well as revealing the Garda’s claimed detection rates, it has again pointed to serious problems in how crimes were being recorded and counted by the force.

Some 17 per cent of offences recorded on the Garda’s call and dispatch (CAD) system could not be found on the force’s PULSE computerised database.

And 40 per cent of public order incidents on CAD could not be found on PULSE, while 26 per cent of domestic violence incidents in Dublin never made it on to PULSE.

The findings in the CSO audit represent the third time in two years that a report has identified major problems with the Garda’s recording of crime, though it says processes have significantly improved in many areas.

Misclassified

In an audit of the 2011 crime data published last year, 7 per cent of crime was found to have been misclassified and moved out of the crime figures completely. But that had now been reduced to 3 per cent, the CSO said.

The Garda Inspectorate two years ago first raised concerns about the reliability of the crime statistics. The CSO ceased publishing data for a period as a result until it worked with the Garda in an effort to resolve some of the issues.

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said those efforts to improve the recording of crime would continue, adding it was an issue that law enforcement agencies all over the world had struggled with.

Focus

Minister for Justice

Frances Fitzgerald

said that while issues persisted, the situation had improved over the last two years and that the Garda would continue to work to make more gains.

“I am determined that a strong focus remain on the need for improvements,” she added.

The CSO also found of the 225,000 serious offences recorded last year, the Garda claimed a detection rate of 50 per cent.

However, the audit has concluded the real figure was 40 per cent because about 13,000 crimes were incorrectly classified.

And of the total offences in 2015, criminal proceedings had commenced in 32 per cent by the end of the year.

Sex crimes and burglary saw the lowest percentage of criminal proceedings commenced last year.

The claimed detection rate – where Garda are confident they know the perpetrator in a case – for sexual offences was 36 per cent last year, but criminal proceedings started in just 8 per cent of the total offences recorded.

While many would question why just 8 per cent of sex crimes resulted in criminal proceedings, when the Garda claimed to know the perpetrator in 36 per cent of the cases, there are many reasons.

Investigations may still be under way, witnesses may give statements only to resile from them, an offender may die or may be a minor or the statute of limitations may expire.

For example, there were 62 homicides last year, with 21 of those cases having resulted in criminal charges.