Survey reveals discontent with rural policing

Rural policing and station closures are back in the spotlight after a Garda survey found that people living farthest from a Garda station reported the highest dissatisfaction levels with the service provided to the local community.

More than a third of people living more than 10km from their nearest station said they were unhappy with the local service compared to 24% of people living less than 1km from a station.

The Garda Public Attitudes Survey 2015 also found a quarter of crime victims did not report the incident. This included almost 30% of assault victims, nearly 20% of robbery- from- the-person victims and two-thirds of theft-from-the-person victims.