Why don't gardai catch bike thieves?

Locust

Here's a little secret - Gardai cannot and never will be able to put a stop to bike theft. As long as bikes are around it will always exist.

Of course Gardai can be more proactive and implement measures/patrols to curb crime - but it will happen again, thats the fact. The same with burglaries, robberies and violent crime. They will happen again, its only a matter of time before the next stabbing/rape etc... and people may cry 'where were the guards?' Sorry but the guards cannot catch someone for every crime, they cannot be everywhere at once, they may not have a car in your area today, they may not have a car available to rush to you, when you call.
As long as an imperfect world exists - so will crime. All Gardai do is detect and do their damnedest to attempt to prevent it next time around.

What are Gardai doing about bike theft? Operations are put in place in particularly 'high crime' areas to lower the crimes, although that may mean the crime rises in another area. Gardai are doing quite a bit, I know of heaps of people being convicted of such crimes. Only a small percentage gets reported in your papers.

Potential-Monke

Qualitymark wrote: »

Thanks. I'll cycle into town now to do some research in a library, and will then cause my bicycle to disappear for five hours, rather than expecting it to be safe on the street, locked with a €70 lock to a Dublin Corporation bicycle stand?

Sarcasm? Surely not! :pac: Unfortunately, the days of assuming anything are numbered. With the passing of time and new laws, criminals are preying on assumptions. Only 5/6 years ago it could have been assumed that you could leave your garage door open while you get something from the house (my father still does!) but oppertunistic thieves will see that and it only takes them a few seconds to a few minutes to come and go.

Qualitymark wrote: »

Since bicycle theft is the standard gateway crime that introduces youths to criminal behaviour, it surely makes sense to target this crime.

Sense is something that few who get promoted have, in nearly any job. Sense would tell the Government that we need more members, but that doesn't seem to work either...

Qualitymark wrote: »

Interesting; I didn't know this.

Little gap in the market there for some entrepreneur.

Private Detectives will soon be a common thing i reckon.

Eru

discus wrote: »

I live with a load of lads who made their teenage living being burgalars, thieves, car lifters, tyre robbers, arsonists... and most of them genuinely did start with bikes from garages.

I was going to be sarcastic, then I realised how stupid that post is. Thieves started by thieving? Petty criminals started off committing petty crime? Well I never :eek:

Also good to know the quality of person posting here.

discus

Ah you haven't changed Eru. You're still the PR disaster you've always been.

Eru

discus wrote: »

Ah you haven't changed Eru. You're still the PR disaster you've always been.

Thanks.

Afterall, I'm here to save your ass not kiss it

Qualitymark

Eru wrote: »

Thanks.

Afterall, I'm here to save your ass not kiss it

Unfortunately, as long as gardai shrug and say "You expect your bike to be safe? Sorry, not my job; bike thieving isn't a priority" you'll have people like my old neighbours, who used to say "Sure don't bother reporting it to the Guards, they won't do a thing - go up to your man the republican up the road and he'll get it back for you in no time".

Locust

Qualitymark wrote: »

Unfortunately, as long as gardai shrug and say "You expect your bike to be safe? Sorry, not my job; bike thieving isn't a priority"

Yup - nothing Gardai can do about it. Would you like a Garda post outside your house?

Qualitymark wrote: »

...the Guards, they won't do a thing - go up to your man the republican up the road and he'll get it back for you in no time".

You still have those in your estate?! Off you go...

deadwood

Qualitymark wrote: »

Unfortunately, as long as gardai shrug and say "You expect your bike to be safe? Sorry, not my job; bike thieving isn't a priority" you'll have people like my old neighbours, who used to say "Sure don't bother reporting it to the Guards, they won't do a thing - go up to your man the republican up the road and he'll get it back for you in no time".

Mitt Romney lives on your street? Cool.

discus

Qualitymark wrote: »

Unfortunately, as long as gardai shrug and say "You expect your bike to be safe? Sorry, not my job; bike thieving isn't a priority" you'll have people like my old neighbours, who used to say "Sure don't bother reporting it to the Guards, they won't do a thing - go up to your man the republican up the road and he'll get it back for you in no time".

I was still getting that advice 12 years ago from my teachers!

i57dwun4yb1pt8

my two cents ;
doesnt take into account private sales though - but common sense whould prvail here.

1/ every bike shop should be licensed to sell bikes.

2/ all trade in / 2nd bikes sellers to these shops must provide id / name and address / proof of same.
serial number to be checked against gardai database of some sort if possible - before transaction.
kinda like an anpr dbase.

3/ fly by night traders and casual corner traders to be arrested and fined heavily .

if you make the second hand market a pain in the ass, the c.unts will give up alot of the theiving.

Potential-Monke

I agree, 2nd hand markets should be better regulated, but if this country can't even get a law passed stating that people need proof of id to get a prepay sim card then your suggestion is far far far down the line.

We all have ideas and brainwaves that would make this country better. Most of them are plausible and sensible. And i urge anyone with a halfway worthy idea to pitch it to your local representatives as they are the ones who can get it mentioned in the Dail and hopefully onto consideration. But knowing those idiots up there sensible ideas will go unheard.

unichall

As has been stated the answer is simple, gardai recover 1000's of bikes a year, no exaggeration.

However what can be done to help prevent bike theft? Again another easy answer but not so easy to implement and in my opinion will never nor shouldn't be implemented. The answer is to regulate the bike industry, exactly like the car industry.

Every bike sold has a log book and a chassis no. stamped into the frame, when the bike is sold its the same procedure as selling a car. This creates a database that gardai can go to to identify bikes and owners, it works 99.9% of all stolen cars are returned for this reason.

Why won't it happen? Who would pay for the extra civil servants to man the newly created office to deal with the tens of thousands of bikes bought every year? Well the cyclist of course, could you imagine the uproar if they tried to introduce a registration and/or road tax on cyclists? Hmmm, interesting.

So in the mean time it gives gardai little ammunition to deal with a problem as stated at the beginning of this post that they already do a lot about.

DirkVoodoo

are you serious wrote: »

I have to also reply like ERU about the lads having a bit of banter at the station counter... God forbid lads get along in work and have a sense of humour when working, as he said going from identifying a body in a hospital or morgue is far from easy. If we let everything get to us we'd probably all be topping ourselves with that much depression!!

I have to comment on this. I've read the entire thread and have to say that all the replies from who I can only assume are the Gardai have been fair and realistic about bike theft, however this one annoys me a bit.

It's called professional courtesy and when dealing with sensitive matters, i.e. face to face with a victim, regardless of the crime, I would expect it of any member of AGS.

Surely you have a time and a place to engage in "banter"? After all, you're the national police service of this country, not a couple of lads working down in the local Supermacs. I shouldn't need to tell you that and I don't want to sound condescending, you've a tough job and no one is asking you to "cry with every crime", but FFS at least have enough empathy to give people your most professional face when dealing with them and save the banter for later, no?

Qualitymark

Agree totally that it's important how a garda deals with the public. Once you put that uniform on - or that plainclothes outfit with your warrant card in the pocket - you're not just representing yourself, you're representing the police force of our country.

It's not correct that people should judge someone differently when s/he's in a uniform, but it's what happens.

Every time someone goes into a garda station and reports a crime to a garda who's half-listening and more involved in jokes with colleagues, a reputational wave goes out.

Every time someone goes into a garda station and says "I found this wallet/€50 note/bicycle" and asks for a receipt and is told "we don't do receipts here" and the hatch is slammed, a sense of distrust for the force is spread.

We're living in "the common good"; if individual gardaí put themselves outside of this, they don't lose their own reputation only, but that of the force.

cdaly_

foreign wrote: »

Then try identify when the bike was stolen. (Have you ever looked through an entire days worth of CCTV for a thief who is not dressed in black and white strips and wearing a mask?).

I don't know if there is a standard method of reviewing CCTV but is seems to me a binary search would do nicely here:

1. Assuming a 24 hour CCTV 'tape'.
2. Identify the bike on the CCTV.
3. Fast forward to halfway through the day.
4. If bike is still there, ignore everything before that point. If not, ignore everything after that point.
5. Fast forward / rewind to halfway through the remaining period.
6. repeat 4,5 as necessary and it won't take long to zoom in on the event.

cdaly_

cdaly_ wrote: »

I don't know if there is a standard method of reviewing CCTV but is seems to me a binary search would do nicely here:

1. Assuming a 24 hour CCTV 'tape'.
2. Identify the bike on the CCTV.
3. Fast forward to halfway through the day.
4. If bike is still there, ignore everything before that point. If not, ignore everything after that point.
5. Fast forward / rewind to halfway through the remaining period.
6. repeat 4,5 as necessary and it won't take long to zoom in on the event.

See that's where I've being doing it wrong for four years!

I've yet to have a bike theft occur where CCTV covers the bike rack or isn't on top of a building looking at rack with more than 30+ bikes.

Borderfox

Gardai recovered a bike of mine that was stolen in the city centre, apparantly it was on its was up north.

Maybe the bike shops could come together and pool their records, they could keep a record of the serial number of the bike and the owners details (subject to data protection)

The safety of your property starts with the individual and with some simple changes in behaviour you can make your property more difficult to steal

Potential-Monke

cdaly_ wrote: »

I don't know if there is a standard method of reviewing CCTV but is seems to me a binary search would do nicely here:

1. Assuming a 24 hour CCTV 'tape'.
2. Identify the bike on the CCTV.
3. Fast forward to halfway through the day.
4. If bike is still there, ignore everything before that point. If not, ignore everything after that point.
5. Fast forward / rewind to halfway through the remaining period.
6. repeat 4,5 as necessary and it won't take long to zoom in on the event.

Just to add my 2cents on this, that is what i do, but lets say you do happen to see someone taking the bike from the first cctv camera. And usually they wear the same clothes and have their faces covered. So now you've to request, collect and view anything 1 to 31 cameras, depending on where it happens.

Lets say there are 20 other cameras, 15 of which belong to local shops. Each one of those shops will more than likely have 15 different cctv systems with their own software, and some may still be on tape (which, as you can imagine takes alot more time to go through, fast forwarding cctv on video usually ends in a fuzzy mess).

So, now you've to attempt to install 15 different programs onto a reviewing pc (if there is one), but some software will clash with others and won't work, requiring a clean wipe of all software and installing everything again. And this is all hoping that the cctv was burned properly, which alot of the time it isn't, and there is no open internet access to download the program which it uses, back to the shop and you've to wait for the "professional" to do it. More time.

Now imagine you're a member who has little to no pc knowledge. You've to wait for someone more experienced/trained and they could have a list of more important cctv to sort for high-profile crimes. On years old technology may i add (our reviewing pc has 512mb ram! And i do alot for other members as i'm the expert apparently, didn't know porn would make me that one day!).

Finally, where is all this time going to come from? You may see a Garda or two who look like they're doing nothing but drinking tea and eating, but most Gardai are always doing something and they are getting busier.

Unfortunately, even for a clear cut case, it can take months to get everything done. And you may never id the suspect. Loads of variables, little time. I'm not making excuses, i'm explaining the process, which also varies greatly from station to station, alot of stations have no hardware to do any of this.

crackcrack30

Do the Gardai ever carry out sting operations for petty / oppertunist crime such as staged - laptop on backseat of car
-delivery van half open
- unlocked high end bike's

As per american type 'bait cars' ect? would make good viewing.....:D

Potential-Monke

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Do the Gardai ever carry out sting operations for petty / oppertunist crime such as staged - laptop on backseat of car
-delivery van half open
- unlocked high end bike's

As per american type 'bait cars' ect? would make good viewing.....:D

Unfortunately, that is illegal in this country to the best of my knowledge. Can't remember the exact word that's called, but it wouldn't stand in court. I think...

crackcrack30

Its illegal to catch someone commiting a crime..:rolleyes:..... the guards have both of their hands firmly tied around their b*lls when trying to fight crime in this country.....
Most of our laws need to be brought up to date out of the victorian age or brought back to biblical times, not this basterdised setup, the only thing most scobes would understand is the eye for eye mentality or loose a hand ect.

Sempai

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Unfortunately, that is illegal in this country to the best of my knowledge. Can't remember the exact word that's called, but it wouldn't stand in court. I think...

'Entrapment' is the word you're looking for!

Qualitymark

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Unfortunately, that is illegal in this country to the best of my knowledge. Can't remember the exact word that's called, but it wouldn't stand in court. I think...

Surely not:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/men-caught-in-prostitution-sting-by-undercover-gardai-enter-guilty-pleas-2956079.html

Entrapment is if gardaí cause someone to commit a crime they wouldn't do if they weren't persuaded to, yes? Felon-setting, as the Fenians called it. If they put out a locked bike and someone stole it, that's not entrapment, surely?

Eru

Seriously guys? Your asking what secret sting operations do and do not take place on an open forum read by anyone? C'mon and get bloody serious.

Entrapment is where your the one actually pushing the person to commit the crime ie they only did it because of the police. I would personally think that a court would find bait cars to be entrapment in this country just by the fact that a nice easy to steal car was parked up and left on purpose. Undercover officers waiting for someone to steal a bike without any interference from the police is fine.

Lets just say operations occur and use the Lusk bank robbery or Lucan cash in transmit robbery as an examples that made the papers.

eoinkildare

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Unfortunately, that is illegal in this country to the best of my knowledge. Can't remember the exact word that's called, but it wouldn't stand in court. I think...

No such thing as Entrapment as a defence in Irish Law. Agent Provocateur can be used in mitigation only.

crackcrack30

Eru wrote: »

Seriously guys? Your asking what secret sting operations do and do not take place on an open forum read by anyone? C'mon and get bloody serious.

Entrapment is where your the one actually pushing the person to commit the crime ie they only did it because of the police. I would personally think that a court would find bait cars to be entrapment in this country just by the fact that a nice easy to steal car was parked up and left on purpose. Undercover officers waiting for someone to steal a bike without any interference from the police is fine.

Lets just say operations occur and use the Lusk bank robbery or Lucan cash in transmit robbery as an examples that made the papers.

These roberies are high profile / high level organised crime acts my question was if there are operations in place in this country to put fear in low level opertunists...... the crimes that effect the vast number of ordinary folk, put fear in the elderly, and give areas a bad name.... and are proactive policing instead of reactionary.....

Potential-Monke

Sorry, my bad, entrapment i believed was illegal (at least i keep getting told it is, but it may not be called entrapment). As ERU said there are operations but until there is clear statistics of the breakdown in the thefts in Ireland bike theft is bundled in with every other theft category out there so it's impossible to see the stats.

But, where i am, it's a minor problem in relation to the other types of thefts out there.

Locust

crackcrack30 wrote: »

These roberies are high profile / high level organised crime acts my question was if there are operations in place in this country to put fear in low level opertunists...... the crimes that effect the vast number of ordinary folk, put fear in the elderly, and give areas a bad name.... and are proactive policing instead of reactionary.....

Yes, yes there are such operations in place, at high levels & low levels.

Locust

Actually, I can remember years ago being impressed by plain clothes guards who used to regularly sit up towards the back of the bus (on a certain route will shall not be named) and regularly catch junkies smoking heroin etc.

Qualitymark

And here we are - an example of the attitude sometimes (I won't say always) met by people who report their bike stolen. From the Cycling forum on boards.ie:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056738661

Quote:
Originally Posted by ccull123
Did you give them the serial number for the bike?

They didnt ask for it, just took very basic details and when I tried to add more (e.g.no tube on back tyre so visible in cctv) she just cut across me. I called kilmainham, they decided my address was in the bridewell district (its not) so sent someone from therd. The garda that arrived said Kilmainham would have to look into it so she would pass on the details.

Eru

Can we put a thread up everytime we experience a bike owner who reports for insurance only? Can provide **** all info? Wont come in to make a statement? Bought the bike second hand and has no proof of ownership?

Or how about a thread dedicated to the most idiotic CSI / TV inspired criticism of real police? No tube visible on CCTV? FFS mate get realistic, that much detail would only exist if you actually examined the bike with a camcorder NOT on CCTV mounted on a ****ing wall even within a few metres nevermind the usual 20 or 30.

Oh and again we apologise that we did not cry when you reported your bike stolen, actually we don't. Its YOUR loss and a financial one at that, not our loss and not a child being abused, wife beaten or sister raped, etc. You think your doctor cries himself asleep over your illnesses?

Qualitymark

Nobody wants gardaí to cry over a stolen bike, but people generally would like them to look for the thief. Sorry if that's too much to ask. Silly to expect it really. Thieves should be allowed to do their job, of course. Gardaí shouldn't be interfering with them.

goldie fish

Qualitymark wrote: »

Nobody wants gardaí to cry over a stolen bike, but people generally would like them to look for the thief. Sorry if that's too much to ask. Silly to expect it really. Thieves should be allowed to do their job, of course. Gardaí shouldn't be interfering with them.

You have a twisted view of priorities. We read every day how the GS have not enough transport, staff or funding to FUNCTION as an effective police force, yet you still think they should be concentrating on finding your bicycle?

Qualitymark

goldie fish wrote: »

You have a twisted view of priorities. We read every day how the GS have not enough transport, staff or funding to FUNCTION as an effective police force, yet you still think they should be concentrating on finding your bicycle?

How has this become my bicycle? I haven't had a bicycle stolen.

I think the priority of the Gardaí should be to stop crime, and there is a huge surge in bike thefts, which are apparently being ignored because they are not a "priority".

If the police step back from a crime wave that's affecting a lot of ordinary people - and bicycle theft is surging in Ireland - the result is a growing risk of vigilantism.

pa990

Qualitymark wrote: »

How has this become my bicycle? I haven't had a bicycle stolen.

I think the priority of the Gardaí should be to stop crime, and there is a huge surge in bike thefts, which are apparently being ignored because they are not a "priority".

If the police step back from a crime wave that's affecting a lot of ordinary people - and bicycle theft is surging in Ireland - the result is a growing risk of vigilantism.

Gardai investigate crime,
Preventing crime comes as a No2, that mightn't sound logical or proper, but its the reality. Prevention cannot be measured in statistics (which the job is all about) but is the reality unfortunately





.. pushing paper....

Qualitymark

pa990 wrote: »

Gardai investigate crime,
Preventing crime comes as a No2, that mightn't sound logical or proper, but its the reality. Prevention cannot be measured in statistics (which the job is all about) but is the reality unfortunately





.. pushing paper....

Completely agree with this. The problem is that there's a perception - among criminals as well as bicycle owners - that gardaí don't care to involve themselves when a bicycle is stolen. Take a look at the comments on the Cycling forum here, for instance.

It would be a very good thing for Garda relations with the public if the response to bicycle theft was helpful, and if bicycle thieves were seen to be being caught and discouraged from this career choice.

unichall

The problem with this whole thread is that because people in here are cyclists it seems like there is an epidemic of bike thefts occurring throughout the country and we are all outraged that the gardai aren’t doing more to stop it. Now take this discussion to a more general forum which has a better sample of people (not just cyclists). Bicycle theft is not a big deal for them or society as a whole.

So when the gardai draw up there strategic plans for the coming years they have to look at what crimes most affect society i.e. headline crimes. They then put in place a plan and allocate resources to combat crime in these areas and bicycle theft does not feature high on the list compared to, murder, rape, assault, burglary, muggings, drugs, public order and road deaths. As stated they allocate resources to combat these types of crimes and like any organisation they have a finite amount of resources and in today’s climate not even enough so areas of lower priority lose out.

All that said it does not mean that the gardai do not care about bicycle theft, they do, it’s just that other areas have greater resources pumped into them so most bike thefts are left to your general garda on his own which makes tackling a problem very hard and unfortunately bicycle theft is unlikely to become a headline crime and therefore not get the attention you would like because as stated for society as a whole it isn’t that big a problem and for most people ranks lower than other crimes and most would rather see limited resources pumped into the higher priority areas anyway.

That’s just life, it sucks!

Qualitymark

Academic comes up with theory on bike crime:

http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-stolen-bicycles

It's low-risk with an acceptable economic return.

Low-risk. Because it's not targeted.

bill buchanan

goldie fish wrote: »

You have a twisted view of priorities. We read every day how the GS have not enough transport, staff or funding to FUNCTION as an effective police force, yet you still think they should be concentrating on finding your bicycle?

So, to turn this around. Do you think that gardai should not concentrate on finding stolen bicycles? Is that garda policy? Does that mean the OP is correct?

I don't own a bike and have no connection with tha gardai, but I'm surprised at the above tacit admission that they basically won't look for it. i suspect the public would be too.

Not saying it's right or wrong. Just something most people wouldn't be aware of.

bill buchanan

Eru wrote: »

Can we put a thread up everytime we experience a bike owner who reports for insurance only? Can provide **** all info? Wont come in to make a statement? Bought the bike second hand and has no proof of ownership?

Or how about a thread dedicated to the most idiotic CSI / TV inspired criticism of real police? No tube visible on CCTV? FFS mate get realistic, that much detail would only exist if you actually examined the bike with a camcorder NOT on CCTV mounted on a ****ing wall even within a few metres nevermind the usual 20 or 30.

Oh and again we apologise that we did not cry when you reported your bike stolen, actually we don't. Its YOUR loss and a financial one at that, not our loss and not a child being abused, wife beaten or sister raped, etc. You think your doctor cries himself asleep over your illnesses?

That's a pretty awful attitude. But it's, sadly, in line with a lot of people's experiences when you ask them about their dealings with the gardai. I guess it takes all sorts, though.

I guess the issue I'd have with the bit in bold is that you're replying to a criticism by criticising the public. To my mind, that's an invalid argument, as the public are not charged with and paid to deal with or prevent crime. So, I'm not sure it's all that rational to effectively say "well, we may not be doing a great job with catching bike thieves, but neither are the public". I do think we all have responsibilities to society, but we're not paid or trained in how to do it.

goldie fish

bill buchanan wrote: »

I don't own a bike
.

I don't believe that for a second.

bill buchanan

goldie fish wrote: »

I don't believe that for a second.

It shouldn't matter. But I've never cycled in ireland since I was a kid, when I had a BMX (not sure what model). I used to cycle to work when I lived in NZ for 2 years. I'm an advocate of helmets and fining cyclists who don't wear them. I'm also an advocate of harsher penalties for the many cyclists who break red lights and don't wear reflectors etc.

That's my cycling history. Does it make a difference to anything I've said?

Potential-Monke

bill buchanan wrote: »

So, to turn this around. Do you think that gardai should not concentrate on finding stolen bicycles? Is that garda policy? Does that mean the OP is correct?

I don't own a bike and have no connection with tha gardai, but I'm surprised at the above tacit admission that they basically won't look for it. i suspect the public would be too.

Not saying it's right or wrong. Just something most people wouldn't be aware of.

The individual Garda involved will keep an eye out for a stolen bicycle that might match the description given, but they don't have time to specifically look for the bicycle which, 99% of the time, will be long gone outside the district and out of reach of the investigating member. Garda Murphy* in Bray will not care that Garda Byrne* in Anglesea Street is looking for a stolen bike.

Again, it would be great to give the CSI/Law and Order style of investigation to each and every incident (ie: do more or less nothing else until it's solved!), but the reality is that any single frontline Garda could have 100's of different cases of theft to investigate (Section 4 theft doesn't go statute barred) so it's impossible to investigate them all individually. Just as an example, in one 8 hour shift i attended 6 burglaries and 4 thefts among other calls. Each of them had specific items taken. It would have been great to sit in and individually investigate each case over the next few days, but the reality was that the following day i was back out in the car again taking on more and more thefts/burglaries/public order/road traffic, etc. You can see where i'm going with this...

*Made up names

Qualitymark

Potential-Monke wrote: »

The individual Garda involved will keep an eye out for a stolen bicycle that might match the description given, but they don't have time to specifically look for the bicycle which, 99% of the time, will be long gone outside the district and out of reach of the investigating member. Garda Murphy* in Bray will not care that Garda Byrne* in Anglesea Street is looking for a stolen bike.

That's more or less what I'm saying. I can't understand why there isn't a central registry, so Garda Byrne and Garda Murphy will both be able to see bikes that are stolen (and recovered).

As for gardaí not having time to investigate crimes, hmm.

Of course no one expects a garda to drop everything else and rush around after stolen bicycles, handbags, diamond rings, etc; but if there's CCTV at a known half-hour, say, of someone stealing a bike, you'd think it'd be possible to have that on the PULSE system where Garda Brogan in Ballydehob [makeyuppyname] might say "Oho, that's the boyo I see every day."

Turner

There are facilities available to Gardai like so say above.

There is to be no talk of any pulse related crime investigation techniques. Any such action will result in a lock and ban

Qualitymark

Turner wrote: »

There is to be no talk of any pulse related crime investigation techniques. Any such action will result in a lock and ban

Eh? Didn't know that. Sorry 'bout that, chief.

Potential-Monke

Qualitymark wrote: »

As for gardaí not having time to investigate crimes, hmm.

Here's the central problem imo. We're verging on going into too much detail, but i will say that given enough time, we could solve alot of crimes, but it's time that we don't have anymore, and time which has to be divided between fewer members in an environment where crime is rising which equals more crimes for investigation per member.

Also, CCTV is great if the owner of said cameras has made sure that the cameras are:

A: Working
B: Recording
C: Clean
Of good quality (some use webcams...)
E: Pointing in the right direction
F: That someone is in situ that knows how to work it/download the footage

Vikings

Qualitymark wrote: »

Low-risk. Because it's not targeted.

Target bicycle thefts? What type of crime/crimes would you suggest see less time devoted to it in order to devote more time to bicycle thefts?

Qualitymark

Vikings wrote: »

Target bicycle thefts? What type of crime/crimes would you suggest see less time devoted to it in order to devote more time to bicycle thefts?

Since bicycle theft is a gateway crime that leads young people into other crimes (as well as stolen bicycles routinely being used for escape after other thefts), targeting bicycle crime would effectively cut down other crimes.

Potential-Monke

Qualitymark wrote: »

Since bicycle theft is a gateway crime that leads young people into other crimes (as well as stolen bicycles routinely being used for escape after other thefts), targeting bicycle crime would effectively cut down other crimes.

It might, but only for a short time until they figure out something else. But it's an uphill struggle, we recovered a very unique bike the other night, and no mention of it anywhere in Ireland being stolen...