Galway Bay fm newsroom - Crime in the county is down by a fifth.
That's according to the latest garda statistics presented at a meeting of the County Joint Policing Committee today. (6/2)
The figures reveal that the biggest decrease in reported crime has been for burglaries.
There were 267 cases of burglary reported in the county last year, compared to 437 in 2015.
JPC member, Councillor Seosamh Ó Cualáin told the meeting that there was a spate of burglaries in Connemara last year and that CCTV at strategic crossroads in the west could be beneficial in catching the culprits.
Public order offences were also down with an almost 10 per cent drop and minor assaults almost reduced by a fifth last year.
While the number of reported rapes was down for the county in 2016 by almost 30 per cent, sexual assaults increased by 3 per cent.
Some members of the Joint Policing Committee expressed concern that there was a jump of almost a third in people breaching Barring or Safety Orders in domestic violence incidents.
Chief Superintendent of Galway Garda Division, Tom Curley told the meeting that over the past three years, garda personnel numbers in the Galway division are down.
He says he has raised the matter with the Assistant garda commissioner but confirmed that there is no deficit in Galway in terms of garda detectives.
