Serious assaults and violence against gardaí rise sharply

Provisional stats issued by An Garda Síochána show noticeable increases in many categories of crime when comparing 2022 to 2019, including thefts, murders, and sexual violence

The figures compare 2022 with 2019, the last full year before Covid-19.

Serious assaults reported to gardaí jumped by 16% over the last three years, new figures show.

And assaults — both serious and less serious attacks — and obstruction of garda members rose by 27% in the same period.

Violence against gardaí has been top of the agenda of Garda associations in recent years.

This week Justice Minister Simon Harris promised amendments to a proposed bill increasing the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker, including gardaí, to 12 years.

Figures show that sexual offences increased by 9% — though gardaí caution this is partly due to greater reporting and improvements in data quality — while cases of child sexual abuse material rose by 6%.

The provisional Garda figures — which are separate from official CSO crime data — compare 2022 to 2019, which is the last statistically comparable year, before the covid-19 pandemic, when most crimes decreased significantly.

Crimes showing a noticeable increase in 2022, compared to 2019, include:

• Murder up 16% on 2019 (+76% on 2021);
• Theft of vehicles up 17% (+52%);
• Assault causing harm up 16% (+20%);
• Sexual assault up 8% (+5%);
• Rape up 13% (+2%);
• Child sexual abuse material up 6% (+3%);
• Harassment, stalking and threats up 18% (+5%).

The figures show that fraud offences rose 90% on 2019, mainly due to increases in 2021 during covid, but fell by 32% in 2022.

Fraud offences bucking that trend last year were accommodation fraud (+28%) and bogus tradesman fraud (+8%).

Regarding theft of vehicles, gardaí said a “significant portion” related to thefts of second-hand imported vehicles and theft of electric scooters.

Reported domestic abuse incidents continued to increase last year (+8%), with nearly 54,000 cases, compared to 50,000 incidents in 2021 and 44,500 in 2020.

While murders have increased, from 28 in 2019 to 44 in 2022, attempted murders fell by 59% over the same period, but gardaí caution that the percentage change is based on low volumes.

Human trafficking offences jumped by 110% on 2019, but again gardaí point out the actual numbers are relatively low.

Other figures provide a relatively recent insight into drug-related intimidation, with the offence of demanding payment of a debt up 104% on 2019, though that is based on low volumes.

Gardaí said the Drugs Related Intimidation Reporting Programme was in place, with an inspector appointed in each division to deal with the issue.

Offences seeing a decrease since 2019 include: Residential burglary (-45% on 2019, but up 7% on 2021); theft from the person (-40%, but up 111% since 2021); theft from vehicle (-36%, but up 15% on 2021) and robbery from the person (-30%, but up 24% on 2021).

Possession of firearms has dropped by 13% on 2019, while shootings are down 25%.

Total drug offences are down 14% on 2019, with the biggest decrease in cultivation and manufacture (-30%) and possession for personal use (down 23%), with supply/sale down 9% (including a 14% drop on 2021).

Gardaí said that despite this, the volume of drugs seized increased, with €89m worth of narcotics confiscated in 2022.

In addition, €3.75m in cash was seized and nine firearms.

Fatal traffic collisions are up on 2019 (+20%).