Visitors to graveyards and amenity areas are being targeted by thieves

THERE has been a rise in burglaries across the city and county over the past four months compared to the same period last year, a meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee (JPC) was told.

Chief Supt Con Cadogan of the Cork West Garda Division said that 310 burglaries were reported for the past four months, an increase of 40 on the 2017 figure.

However, he pointed out that despite the increase gardaí have recently carried out a number of successful detections and they have been targeting criminals who were using the motorway to hit both rural and urban dwellers in Cork county, and  that a group were intercepted in East Cork in recent weeks who were carrying out burglaries there. 

‘Be vigilant and if you notice anything suspicious like people door-to-door calling, don’t be afraid to ring the gardaí and use the community text alerts,’ said Chief Supt Cadogan.

He also said thefts from vehicles were up from 194 last year to 286 for the same period and he highlighted the fact that people parking their cars in graveyards or amenity areas are being targeted. 

‘They get out of the car and put their handbags in the boot but they may be unaware that they’re being watched. Signs have been put up to warn the general public about leaving valuables in cars and CCTV is also being used to curb this,’ said Chief Supt Cadogan.

There was also an increase in thefts from shops, with 757 recorded for the past four months, an increase of 115 on the same period for last year. Chief Supt Cadogan said that the increase in the reporting of thefts is due to a number of reasons, including business people taking more responsibility as well as using biometric CCTV to identify culprits. Property crime saw an increase from 1,794 in 2017 to 2,106 for this year, while crimes against the person were down from 684 in 2017 to 571 for the past four months.

Speaking at the meeting, Muintir na Tíre community alert co-ordinator Diarmaid Cronin called on the JPC to initiate discussions with the insurance industry to incentivise people to maintain a log book recording the serial numbers, makes, models and descriptions of all property. Mr Cronin said it’s all about getting people ‘to change their mindset’ in relation to their property.

Supt Mick Comyns of Cork City Garda Division said the use of log books makes the work of gardaí a lot easier.

‘It’s a brilliant idea and it would be very much in the insurance industry’s interest to have them. Maybe the JPC should write to the insurance companies and get them to sponsor these log books,’ said Supt Comyns.

Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) seconded the motion and said the use of log books would reduce the problem of stolen goods being sold on. Chairman of the JPC, Cllr Frank O’Flynn, said they would write to the insurance industry about this idea.