A former Chair of Clare’s Joint Policing Committee has questioned the purpose of setting targets for fighting crime, saying it could be counterproductive.
It comes as a new report has found that there’s “little sense of progress” by Gardai in improving crime detection rates.
The Policing Authority’s report has raised significant concerns over the lack of progress made in improving crime detection levels.
Over half of the commitments made by An Garda Síochána in the 2018 Policing Plan were not achieved.
Recruitment of both regular Gardaí and reserves fell significantly short of target, while a failure to finalise important strategies impacted badly on Community Policing, Hate Crime and Diversity.
But a number of positives have been highlighted, as Law Lecturer at NUI Galway, Conor Hanly explains; targets for identifying suspects and victims of online child sexual exploitation were significantly surpassed.
Former Chair of Clare’s Joint Policing Committee, PJ Ryan has questioned the effectiveness of setting targets for members.
The Sixmilebridge Councillor has praised the efforts of Gardaí locally in tackling crime and says the focus should be on effective policing, rather than statistics.
