Crime rise after Covid lockdown

An increase in crime in Cork has been linked to the end of the Covid-19 lockdown.

In a Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting on Monday, Chief Superintendent Con Cadogan presented new figures comparing January-April in 2021 to the same period in 2022.

Chief Superintendent Cadogan confirmed that crime has “increased across all sectors” and said there is no doubt that coming out of lockdown has driven the rise in crime.

He said an area of particular concern to gardaí was the increase in the amount of serious and minor assaults in all divisions.

“That is certainly a worrying trend when you look at how much serious assaults have increased. Not only that, but we have an overburdened health service and quite a lot of those serious assaults end up in Accident and Emergency, putting additional pressure there,” he said.

He added: “We investigate all of those assaults and if somebody has been seriously assaulted, or even a minor assault, we encourage people to come forward as well.”

Assaults causing harm have more than doubled in Cork city, rising from 47 in 2021 to 98 in 2022. Minor assaults in the city went from 195 to 309. In the Cork North Garda Division, assaults causing harm rose from 25 to 42 and minor assaults went from 104 to 120. In Cork West, assaults causing harm went from 16 to 19, and minor assaults jumped from 56 to 94.

Property crime and crime against the person increased in all divisions, with property crime in Cork city almost doubling from 673 to 1,115.

Another area for concern was the increase in incidents of driving while intoxicated which rose from 66 to 96 in the city, from 64 to 114 in Cork North, and from 53 to 74 in Cork West.

The figures showed that theft from shops has soared in 2022. Cork city saw an increase from 266 to 387, while Cork North rose from 58 to 121 and Cork west almost doubled from 22 to 41.