Crime Data

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Questions (153)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

153. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice the total number of attacks on gardaí in each of the past five years to date; the extent to which successful prosecutions have taken place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32224/20]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice

I am awaiting a report from the Courts service and will respond to the Deputy's question when the information is available.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

I refer to Parliamentary Question Number 153 which was for answer on 22 October 2020, in which you asked the total number of attacks on Gardaí in each of the past five years to date; and the extent to which successful prosecutions have taken place. You will recall that the information could not be obtained in the time available and I undertook to consult with An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service of Ireland and contact you again when the information was available.

The tables below outline the recorded incidents of various categories of assault on members of An Garda Síochána.

The table below details the count of incidents of the listed type where a Garda member was the ‘injured party’ of the incident:

Incident Type	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*
Incident Type	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*
Assault / Obstruction / Resist Arrest - Peace Officer	433	388	423	512	723	725
Assault Causing Harm	64	57	70	63	57	36
Assault Minor	320	259	242	188	149	76
Total	817	704	735	763	929	837

The following table shows the counts and percentage of incidents where at least one form of proceeding was issued (either charge, summons or youth referral):

Incident Type	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*
Incident Type	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020*
Assault / Obstruction / Resist Arrest - Peace Officer	328 (76%)	314 (81%)	348 (82%)	423 (83%)	582 (80%)	468 (65%)
Assault Causing Harm	43 (67%)	49 (86%)	67 (96%)	58 (92%)	51 (89%)	24 (67%)
Assault Minor	238 (74%)	209 (81%)	197 (81%)	154 (82%)	125 (84%)	62 (82%)
Total	609 (75%)	572 (81%)	612 (83%)	635 (83%)	758 (82%)	554 (66%)

* Data limited to incidents reported up to and including the 19th October 2020. Many of the remainder are still under investigation so the rate of detection (such as issuing charges) can be expected to grow to the levels of earlier years.

Additional Information

Incident counts are based on reported date and were collated based on PULSE data as of 1:30am on the 20th of October 2020. Crime counting rules are not applied to reflect all recorded incidents. Figures for prosecutions and/or convictions are not supplied as access to court data is unavailable/incomplete. Results are limited to incidents reported up to and including the 19th October 2020.

The following data is provided by the Courts Service of Ireland regarding prosecutions of offences related to your question.

Report for offences in relation to offences which are specifically recorded in relation to members of An Garda Síochána for years Jan – Dec 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & Jan – July 2020

Report 1: Assault on a Peace officer Report 2: Assault with intent to resist lawful apprehension Report 3: Assault with intent to resist apprehension of another

Note 1: A person may have more than one offence and a conviction/non conviction/sent forward for trial were recorded so they will appear more than once on the report.

Note 2: Courts can only provide data in relation to where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.

Report 1; ASSAULT ON PEACE OFFICER

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
Year	No of Offences before the Court	No of Persons before the Court	No of offences where convictions were recorded	No of Persons Convicted	No of offences Sent Forward Trial	No of Persons sent forward for Trial	No of offences where Non Convictions were recorded	No of persons where non convictions were recorded
Jan - Dec 2016	39	31	10	8	11	9	18	16
Jan - Dec 2017	30	24	7	5	10	8	13	11
Jan - Dec 2018	46	28	5	5	6	4	35	21
Jan - Dec 2019	44	26	11	5	8	5	24	17
Jan - Jul 2020	44	26	8	7	16	9	20	12

Report 2; Assault with intent to resist lawful apprehension

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
Year	No of Offences before the Court	No of Persons before the Court	No of offences where convictions were recorded	No of Persons Convicted	No of offences Sent Forward Trial	No of Persons sent forward for Trial	No of offences where Non Convictions were recorded	No of persons where non convictions were recorded
Jan - Dec 2016	1	1					1	1
Jan - Dec 2017	1	1					1	1
Jan - Dec 2018	2	2					2	2
Jan - Dec 2019	2	1					2	1
Jan - Jul 2020	2	1					2	1

Report 3: Assault With Intent to Resist/Prevent Lawful Apprehension of Another

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
Year	No of Offences before the Court	No of Persons before the Court	No of offences where convictions were recorded	No of Persons Convicted	No of offences Sent Forward Trial	No of Persons sent forward for Trial	No of offences where Non Convictions were recorded	No of persons where non convictions were recorded
Jan - Dec 2016
Jan - Dec 2017
Jan - Dec 2018
Jan - Dec 2019	2	1			1	1
Jan - Jul 2020

I trust this information is of assistance.