Donegal serious crime statistics increase Garda borrow a 4x4

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Belfast and Donegal.

Most of the crime in Donegal is petty and opportunistic. But very serious crime in Donegal is on the increase. Can't blame the recession for all crimes. But we can blame some on the lack of funds provided to the Gardai by the Government.
How can they justify spending 30 million for the security for four day visit of the Queen of England, a institution that carried out so many crimes here.
Donegal serious crime statistics increasing.
Gardai had to borrow 4x4 to reach alleged rape victim
Divisional crime prevention officer from Letterkenny, Paul Wallace, said it was notable that this issue had been raised entirely by rural branches.
Mr Wallace pointed out that the garda fleet had 110 4x4 vehicles out of a total of 2,765, which was less than 4pc of the fleet.
Gardai in Letterkenny were called out at Christmas to investigate a report that a woman had been raped but because of the lack of 4x4s, they had to seek the help of a colleague, who used his own private vehicle to take them to the scene.
Mr Wallace said the Donegal division had only one 4x4 but this was for the traffic corps, and was based in Donegal town.
He mentioned another case in Donegal where the local mountain rescue service had to take over road traffic duties when gardai were grounded by the absence of suitable transport.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Irish Independent
What sort of people have we become. More politicians in Donegal are concerned with attracting a few extra tourists than their own people.
No extra tourists will come back soon, because Donegal like most of Ireland looks terrible. More shops closed than open.
I do courier work all over Donegal and the amount of shops that are closed or being run down is a scandal.
Spending 30 million on two guests that are not generally wanted here shows how low official Ireland has gone.
I like Americans and can tolerate polite English, but these two - no. 30 million just for their personal security for half a week. Now our own people will have less for the whole year and next year.
Disgrace.
Thanks a lot President Mary McUseless.
Actual Donegal crime statistics
Crime is not yet out of control - but going that way in some parts of Donegal.
Alarm over Donegal's serious assault statistics
Donegal has the highest rate of serious assaults outside Dublin, the latest crime figures for the county show.
The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) comparing 2007 and 2008 show a rise in assaults and assaults causing harm. There have also been increases in the number of drug offences, burglaries, vehicle thefts, arsons, frauds and disorderly conduct offences.
According to the figures Donegal had the same rate of assault causing harm per 100,000 people as Cork City in 2008 and only Dublin north central and Dublin south central had higher rates.
But the number of incidents of drink driving has dropped significantly. Donegal was also the only county to have no detections of “drug driving” in 2008 and there were no detections over the two-year period. There were six detections for the offence in neighbouring Sligo-Leitrim and 23 in Cavan-Monaghan in 2008 and 726 were recorded in the whole country, up from 269 in 2007. It is understood that pilot programmes for detecting so called drug driving have been rolled out in other garda divisions but not in Donegal.

Assaults causing harm increased from 169 in 2007 to 182 in 2008. The rate of 117 assaults per 100,000 population here compares to the national rate of 87. Donegal also has the second highest rate of detection for assaults causing harm at 89 per cent.

The chair of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee, which is the process of being established, Councillor Patrick McGowan said he was shocked at the very high rate of serious assaults here describing the figures as “startling and disturbing”. “The figures raise more questions than they answer,” he said.
“This is very serious to think that we are only comparable to urban centres like Cork and Dublin. But I would want to ask a lot of questions about these figures and would never take them as face value.”

The number of assaults also rose climbing from 633 in 2007 to 663 a year later. The rate of assaults here is lower than only Cavan-Monaghan and north central and south central Dublin. Disorderly conduct is also on the increase rising from 2,360 to 2,461.

The number of rapes recorded in 2008 fell from 24 the year before to 20 but the rate per 100,000 people at 12.9 is much higher than the state average of 7.7 and is higher than every other division except Waterford and the two Dublin central divisions. The number of defilements of a child under 17 rose from six to nine and the crime has a rate here of 5.8 compared to the national average of 1.9, the highest in the country.

However, drink driving in the county has fell from 947 in 2007 to 725 in 2008 a drop of 23 per cent and driving licence and insurance offences have dropped from 888 to 644.

Arson rose from 53 to 86 a increase of almost 59 per cent and burglaries in the county have increased by eight per cent to 423 in 2008. Robberies in Donegal dropped from 23 to 20 in 2008 and aggravated burglary dropped from eight to four. Thefts dropped slightly but fraud and deception offences rose from 142 to 180. Vehicle theft climbed form 227 to 256. Incidents of stolen property increased from 19 to 25.

Drugs offences in the county are also on the increase climbing from 393 to 469, an increase of 19 per cent, but the rate of 301 per 100,000 is significantly lower than the national figure of 529.

Firearm offences dropped from 27 to 18 but the number of offensive weapons crimes rose from 40 to 55. Liquor licensing offences are also on the rise increasing from 159 to 217.
derryjournal.com/news/alarm_over_donegal_s_serious_assault_statistics_1_2144366
Gardai were questioning three men yesterday following a spate of overnight crime in a rural town which left cars burned out and three businesses ram raided.
One of the busiest nights ever for gardai in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, began after midnight yesterday morning when two cars were set alight. Later, an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal another car.
Raiders, meanwhile, burgled a wine shop while three separate business premises -- including a shopping centre, hearing aid clinic and garage -- were ram raided.
- Anita Guidera
Irish Independent
independent.ie/national-news/three-held-after-raiders-go-on-rural-crime-spree-2632827.html
This is what Wikipedia has to say about crime in Donegals main town.
Crime
Letterkenny is one of the worst towns in Ireland for public order offences. There were a total of 777 public order offences recorded in the town in 2003 with 1505 recorded in 2008. These statistics place Letterkenny as the sixth worst town in Ireland for public order offences, worse than the notoriously dangerous Dublin suburbs of Coolock and Clondalkin.
Recent years have seen serious crimes in Letterkenny being linked with feuds between gangs within certain areas of the town, mainly the Mountain Top and Oldtown and the surrounding areas. In one such incident a man was seriously injured when attacked with pitchforks and slash hooks in the Mountain Top area of the town. The Oldtown area has seen several feuds in recent years - dubbed the "Battle of the Oldtown" by the media. In one incident a man was stabbed and another taken to hospital. The gangs used ninja-type weapons of chains and swords. They only calmed upon the intervention of a local priest. Daggers, knives, chains and rapier-type swords were later confiscated by gardai.
The Main Street has seen numerous assaults, stabbings, sexual assaults, drug raids and attacks on Gardai in the past. Drug crime has become a problem in recent years, notably in the now demolished mart building.

What do the politicians do about crime in Donegal? - as usual most of them do nothing but talk. Some of them were more interested in their - failed attempt - at trying to attract the Queen of England to Donegal.
Imagine what 30 million could do for Donegal - clean up our streets- get our act together for locals first.

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Donegal serious crime statistics increase Garda borrow a 4x4