Double digit increase in domestic abuse incidents in Limerick
REPORTED incidents of domestic abuse in Limerick increased by double-digits during the first eight months of this year, new figures have revealed.
While not every incident resulted in a prosecution, those categorised as domestic abuse include breaches of court orders, domestic disputes and any other incident which gardai believe has a domestic M.O.
The exact number of domestic abuse incidents between January and the end of August has not been disclosed but figures circulated at the quarterly meeting of the Limerick Joint Policing Committee show there was a 10% year-on-year increase across the Limerick division.
Other crime figures, collated by An Garda Siochana analysts, show that most categories of serious crime have fallen across the Limerick division.
However, there are variations between districts. For example burglaries have fallen by more than half (51%) in the Roxboro Road district while there has been a reduction of 11% on the Newcastle West district.
Crimes against the person have increased by 1% across Limerick city and county while assaults have fallen by 5% from 407 in 2020 to 388 in 2021.
The recorded crime figures for the first eight months of this year show there was a 15% reduction in property crime with the biggest reduction being recorded in the Henry Street district (-19%).
These figures include shoplifting and theft offences and were heavily influenced by the Covid restrictions which were in place at the start of the year.
Commenting on the latest figures, the head of the Limerick garda division Chief Superintendent Gerard Roche said Covid-19 has affected policing “very seriously” over the past 18 months.
It’s an artificial situation, it’s an artificial environment in which to carry our policing and all of our crime trends reflect that,” he said.
Meanwhile, members of the JPC were told a total of 1,294 fixed charge penalty notices, relating to breaches of Covid regulations, had been issued across the Limerick division as of August 30, 2021.