A load of rubbish? - Restoring faith in crime figures

Garbage in, garbage out is a term that describes a concept common to mathematics and computer science: the quality of output is determined by the quality of input.

It is a caveat well known to the Central Statistics Office, a state agency staffed by people who take their job seriously.

Last June, the office put garbage in, garbage out into practice when it suspended the publication of crime statistics due to concerns over the accuracy of information given by gardaí.

It had good reason after it observed shortcomings in the recording and classification of certain homicides by gardaí.

Further revelations about the reliability of Garda crime statistics emerged earlier this month when two senior civilian members of the force told the Oireachtas Justice Committee of misclassification and inaccurate recording of crimes.

They also disclosed what has become a familiar theme of bullying and harassment of garda whistleblowers. Senior crime and policing analyst Laura Galligan told the committee how she and her colleague were “belittled and treated very poorly” when they tried to raise serious concerns about misreporting of homicides with senior officers.

The CSO has now resumed the publication of crime statistics but has warned that they still cannot fully be relied upon because of continuing Garda failures.

It has offered to assist the force in assuring the accuracy of crime statistics in the future. That cannot happen quickly enough.