Theft of pedal cycles increased by 700%
THERE has been a sharp increase of vehicle thefts, bike thefts, shop thefts, and aggravated burglaries in the Tallaght policing area.
According to the latest crime statistics from the South Dublin Area Joint Policing Meeting, thefts of pedal cycles increased by over 700 per cent.
The figures, which compare the end of December 31, 2022 with the same period in 2021, indicate 15 pedal cycle thefts in the year ending 2021, compared to 125 the year ending December 2022.
Burglaries were up from 170 to 244 (increase of 43.5 per cent), aggravated burglaries doubled from 7 to 15, theft from shops increased from 509 to 713 and criminal damage was up from 582 to 900 cases.
Superintendent Tomás Gormley, Tallaght Garda Station said the crime numbers were significantly lower during the period of covid, but coming out of that, they are observing a “fairly high increase” across some areas.
Looking at the trends, Supt Gormley said gardai would adopt the Sara model (crime prevention and reduction strategy), in trying to come up with solutions where they are seeing an increase in crimes
“We have analysis services, and they would be one of the services that we would be looking at to see if we could identify why there is such a spike there in consultation with our other stakeholder and community members,” said Supt Gormley.
“In relation to criminal damage, theft of vehicle and theft of pedal cycles, I have asked them to do a report and profile on those in our area, which will determine and predict how we tackle those going forward.”
Gardai in Tallaght have seen a high increase of joyriding, a large part of this is attributed to imports that are without immobilers and alarms.
Superintendent Tomás Gormley (inset) said gardai are observing a ‘fairly high increase’ across some areas
“We have identified registered owners living in our area, we have provided a crime prevention pack to each person residing in the area, telling them what they should be doing, and why they might become a victim of crime,” said Supt Gormley.
Cllr Cathal King (SF) said there seems to be a huge increase in some of the figures, particularly aggravated burglary “which is quite worrying” and questioned if it is gang related.
As to the “ongoing” thefts of pedal bikes, Cllr King asked if it is to do with the high value of the bikes nowadays, also noting attempted thefts of e-bikes at the entrance to Westpark estate.
Supt Gormley said the bikes are high value now, with some bikes costing more than a second hand car.
“Unfortunately, there isn’t a register. You have the national vehicle register, which makes it very easy if its stolen.”
He said gardai bike schemes are in place to talk to people in areas where there is high numbers of instances, especially theft of electric and e-bikes.
