The number of people who said they were a victim of crime has fallen to its lowest level since Q1 2015, according to the latest Garda Public Attitudes Survey.

The Q4 2018 Garda Public Attitudes Survey has found the victimisation rate was 4.5%. which is the lowest quarterly victimisation rate since the survey was re-launched.

Very serious

In addition, 16% of respondents to the Q4 survey considered crime in their local area to be a very serious or serious problem, the lowest level since Q1 2015.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents perceive national crime to be a very serious or serious problem. This divergent perception of the seriousness of local and national crime has been a consistent across multiple quarterly public attitudes surveys.

The vast majority of people – 63% – say that fear of crime has no impact on their quality of life, an increase of 3% between the last two survey sweeps.

The number of people reporting their crime to Gardaí stood at 89%, the highest since Q4 2016.

Eight in ten respondents interviewed between October and December 2018 were satisfied with the service provided by An Garda Síochána to local communities.

Victims

During Q4 2018, satisfaction among victims of crime who reported their crime to Gardaí stood at 59%, an increase of 4% when compared to the same quarter of 2017.

Half of victims interviewed felt the right amount of information had been provided to them.

The public’s trust in the organisation remains very high at 89%.

There has been a decrease in the perception that the organisation treats everyone fairly, regardless of who they are, over recent survey sweeps.

Concerns

The Q4 survey also found that 70% of survey respondents agreed that Gardaí in their area can be relied upon to be there when you need them, this has decreased 6% since Q3 2018. While 80% agreed that the Gardaí in this area listen to the concerns of local people.

Over one third of respondents (36%) agreed that community relations with the police were poor, while 40% agreed that the Gardaí are not dealing with things that matter to people in the local community.

During Q4 2018 the majority of respondents had positive views about the capability of An Garda Síochána to be friendly and helpful (93%), community focused (71%), modern or progressive (66%), effective in tackling crime (66%) and well managed (51%). Over 40% (43%) said the organisation provides a world class police service.

The data is available here.