The move to deploy more uniformed gardaí on to the streets of the north and south Dublin inner city followed a number of high profile assaults, including gang attacks and stabbings.
The number of people being arrested for chaotic and antisocial crimes in the city centre has significantly increased since the Garda rolled out a new high visibility operation last year.
However, instances of assault or obstruction of gardaí are now declining by 14 per cent, having increased in the first six months of the operation.
Gardaí believe the number of assaults of members of the force, and efforts to obstruct them, are declining because, at least in part, body-worn cameras are being used by city centre gardaí and a new Taser pilot project is also under way there.
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The bolstered frontline policing operation rolled out in the city centre is being extended to other parts of the Dublin metropolitan region (DMR).
The move to deploy more uniformed gardaí on to the streets of the north and south inner city followed a number of high profile assaults, including gang attacks and stabbings. In the period after the pandemic many people also complained the city centre felt very unsafe.
And since the high visibility policing operation was put in place last April, the number of drunkenness offences detected has increased by 21 per cent, with a 12 per cent increase in public order crimes.
More people have also been caught with drugs in their possession for personal use, up 16 per cent, in the city centre compared to the previous 12 months. Meanwhile, obstructing Garda searches for drugs, which is a specific offence, was up 27 per cent.
Over the past year almost 6,500 arrests have taken place in Dublin city centre, or 18 arrests per day. An average of 35 charges or summonses were issued every day, more than 13,500 over the year-long period. And more than 1,000 adult cautions were issued or juvenile diversion referrals made.
Garda Headquarters believes that, for some crimes, the increase in the number of offences recorded over the past year is a reflection of a more proactive, and pro-arrest, policing policy.
“Dublin, like any major European capital, has a wide range of complex social and professional dynamics,” said Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Roberts, who is in charge of policing across Dublin city and county.
“An Garda Síochána is committed to working with all sectors of political, economic and civic society to reassure the public, residents, visitors, businesses and workers that Dublin is, in the main, a safe place to live, visit, socialise, conduct business and enjoy.”
The number of arrests for some crimes will always increase if a more proactive approach is taken by the Garda and more members are sent out on the beat with orders to tackle those crimes. However, for other crime types, offences will only come to light if the victim reports them, rather than arrest trends being heavily influenced by new proactive policing operations.
The number of drug dealing offences, for example, has declined by 12 per cent in the city centre over the past year, compared to the previous corresponding period.
Theft from the person was down 23 per cent while robbery from the person declined by 33 per cent. Begging was down by 40 per cent, minor assaults declined by 12 per cent and more serious assaults, which caused harm, declined by 18 per cent.
The high visibility operation in place in the city centre for the past year is now being extended to DMR East, Dún Laoghaire, and DMR South, Tallaght.
High-visibility beats are already under way in Dún Laoghaire Town, Shankill Village, Blackrock Village, Dundrum Village including the town centre. In DMR South new patrols are taking place in The Square Shopping Centre, Tallaght village, Rathfarnham village, Crumlin village, Rathmines village, Rathgar village and Terenure Village.
