Gardaí pledge to reduce crime levels by 2%

GARDAÍ plan to cut crime levels and improve detection rates this year, according to the force’s strategy for 2007.

In a bid to reverse rising crime rates, garda bosses have set themselves a target to reduce overall crime levels by 2%.

And the force also wants to turn around the downward trend in detection levels in recent years and increase the rate at which they solve crimes by 2%.

The Garda Policing Plan 2007 has set specific targets in relation to gun and drug crime, including:

a 3% increase in the number of firearms seized.

a 5% rise in seizures of illegal drugs.

a 2% reduction in incidents involving a firearm.

Organised crime and gangland shootings dominated the news for much of last year and led to the announcement of new anti-crime measures by Justice Minister Michael McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy.

The scale of the problem was highlighted again yesterday with the latest attempted tiger kidnapping in north Dublin by armed raiders.

The 2007 policing plan details a number of further measures to combat organised crime and crime generally.

Central among these is the development and implementation of a Garda National Crime Reduction and Prevention Strategy.

The strategy is to be piloted in the second quarter of this year. It will be assessed in the third quarter and implemented nationwide in the final quarter.

The force’s forensic capabilities are also to be developed, including the implementation of a Garda Forensic Strategy.

A fingerprint identification system will be deployed at Garda Headquarters and a DNA database will be established. Forensic capability will be assisted with the construction of a new Forensic Science Laboratory.

Mr Conroy said other major strategies to be drawn up in 2007 include a Garda Youth Strategy, which will be implemented by the end of the year.

Public consultations on a National Model of Community Policing will start in the coming months and the model will be piloted in the third quarter.

The 2007 policing plan is the first to be developed in accordance with the Garda Síochána Act 2005. This act makes the Garda Commissioner personally accountable to the Dáil and gives the Justice Minister the power to set priorities for the force.

The priorities set by Mr McDowell largely repeats the priorities set in previous policing plans. However, it states that the ongoing expansion of the force to 14,000 should be fully reflected by more gardaí on the street and in visible policing roles.

The priorities specify the need to combat anti-social behaviour and use new powers, such as anti-social behaviour orders.

In a new priority, Mr McDowell asked gardaí to monitor registered sex offenders and to co-operate with police forces in the North and Britain in order to minimise the risk of re-offending.