The Police in Fermanagh scored some successes in meeting set targets towards reducing crime but, failed in other areas due, according to senior officers, an increased reporting of crimes on the one hand and a reluctance by complainants on the other to back up their complaints with personal statements for Court proceedings.
The statistics were given at a meeting in Irvinestown of the Fermanagh District Policing Partnership which was chaired, for the first time, by a Sinn Féin member, Councillor Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh.
The group, which includes locally elected representatives and independent (non-elected) members, were presented by Chief Inspector Alywin Barton with a 12-month Report (April 2007-March 2008) on PSNI performance across various crime areas.
Overall crime was slightly up, by 100 on the previous year (plus 3.3 per cent), and the overall clearance rate was down, less 135 (22 per cent). Within that overall picture, violent crime (offences against the person, sexual offences and robbery) was also slightly up, by 25 (plus 2.9 per cent), and the clearance rate was down on the previous year, to 29.5 per cent compared to 35.4 per cent.
INCREASE
But, there were plusses too.
For instance, there was a 20.8 per cent increase in the clearance rate for robberies, which were up on the previous year, a very slight clearance rate for vehicle crime, and also with regards to criminal damage. Here, there were 938 recorded instances of Criminal Damage compared to 909 the previous year when the clearance rate was 14.3 per cent. This time, the clearance rate went up to 16 per cent.
Members had already read the 12-month performance Report, among them the new chairman of Fermanagh Council, Thomas O'Reilly who noted that the crime clearance rates had fallen substantially across a number of categories.
He singled out fraud and forgery where the clearance rate had dropped in the last year to 28.6 per cent as against 61.3 per cent the previous year, despite the fact there were only four more crimes (84 as against 80 the previous year).
Chief Inspector Barton, responding, admitted: "Crime clearances cause me enormous frustration". He assured the committee that nothing gave his officers more satisfaction than clearing crimes, and referred to the impact of the removal of 'non sanctioned clearances' from the crime figures.
He explained: "This means that a member of the public comes to us to report a crime, tells us who did it but will not provide a statement. Accordingly, we must record the crime but we cannot achieve a 'clearance'. Crimes are cleared by people being prosecuted or given an informed warning or caution".
However, he revealed that dedicated members of staff were focusing on this issue and that, already, the PSNI were experiencing an increase in clearances.
