All categories of crime increased in Meath in 2017

Paul Murphy

All categories of crime in Co Meath increased in the 12 months between 2016 and 2017 according to the Joint Policing Committee annual report for 2017.

The report was presented to a meeting of Meath County Council last week. It showed that property crime had gone up by 36% between 2016-2017 (from 2,228 to 3,028). However, this had been reduced since 2014 when 3,400 incidents of this type of crime were committed.

Non-aggravated burglaries went up from 578 incidents in 2016 to 785 last year while robberies from establishments or institutions rose by 50% (14 up to 21). Crimes against the person rose by 5% (472 up to 495), while robbery from the person recorded a 7% rise (15 to 16).

Theft from the person was up by 10% (21 to 23) and thefts from vehicles were up by 23% (431 to 531). There were 156 incidents of theft or unauthorised taking of vehicles in 2017 – up from 137. Thefts from shops rose by 39% (461 up to 641) and thefts from other property were up by 50% (466 up to 698). A drop of 25% in the number of road deaths was recorded in the report.

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