McDowell welcomes 3% crime drop

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday welcomed the 3% drop in crime for the first nine months this year and promised continuing resources for convicting criminals.

The Garda Síochána Annual Report published yesterday, however, showed a 22% rise in serious crime nationwide in 2002.

But provisional crime figures supplied by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to the minister show there was a reversal of this trend up to September this year with a 3% drop in overall crime rates.