Former Mayor of Derry and Strabane Councillor Brian Tierney
Mr Tierney was speaking after the PSNI’s monthly crime statistics bulletin were published on Thursday.
It showed there was a 3.4% increase in crimes recorded across the North between November 2020 and October 2021, compared with the previous twelve months.
Derry City and Strabane District Council showed an increase of 8.1 per cent in recorded crimes.
Seven policing districts experienced a higher level of crime and there were greater recorded incidents of violence, sexual offences, drug offences and public order offences.
Said the Derry and Strabane councillor: “While I understand that we saw a sizeable drop in crime across the North last year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions that were introduced to combat it, any rise in crime has to be a cause for concern.
“While an increase of 3.4% on the previous year might not seem like much, that’s a further 3,382 crimes being committed across the North, with all the negative impacts that result from it.
“Most worryingly are the severity of the crimes that have seenan increase. Death or serious injury by unlawful driving has risen by nearly 30%, rape has increased by 17% and drug trafficking is up by over 14%.
“While we have seen a small decrease in homicides, there have still been 16 in the past twelve months, with eight having a domestic abuse motivation and we need to address this.
“These are all extremely serious crimes that have long last impacts on the victims and their families, one instance of crime is too many and we need to do what we can to lower these numbers and warn people about the consequences of engaging in criminality.
“Specific areas have also seen large increases in crime in the last twelve months.
“My own district, Derry and Strabane has seen an increase in recorded crime of 8.1%, while Ards and North Down has seen a 12% increase and Antrim and Newtownabbey an 11.7% increase.
“These spikes will have a serious impact on people living in these communities and police must work to combat the causes for this rise and consider what measures may be deployed to tackle them.
“While we are under no illusions about the unique challenges around policing in the North there is still much work to do to address the outstanding issues across many of our communities.
“I hope the PSNI will be able to put the high-profile missteps of the past while behind them and work towards building a safer society for all our people,” added the former Mayor of Derry and Strabane.
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