A meeting was held in St. Colmcille’s Senior National School last Friday. It was open to all of Knocklyon and all the Residents Associations were especially asked to send representatives. The reason was the continuing spate of Burglaries throughout Knocklyon . The purpose was what could we as a community do to reduce or prevent theses type of crimes. Woodstown Village Residents Association (WVRA) must be thanked for organising this event. There was a good attendance. the meeting was introduced by Brian Good Chair of WVRA. Councillor Deirdre O’Donovan chaired the night. Community Garda Sully & Sergeant Phelan from Rathfarnham as well as Detective Redmond from Tallaght attended. All three spoke at various times.
The importance of reporting all crimes to the Garda was emphasised. This is so important,as without reporting it ,it will not appear in the figures above. Secondly, the staffing of Garda Stations is related to the number of crimes in the area. You are now able to report a crime on the Garda http://garda.ie/
It was pointed out that Facebook does not constitute reporting a crime. So why it may be useful for Community FB pages to alert each other to crimes or suspicious activities, this is not monitored by An Garda and does not constitute reporting a crime. It was also found that old style Neighbourhood watch schemes in areas where people are far less IT skilled and far less literate in social media are in many areas more effective at deterring crime. This is just through knowing your neighbour and watching out for them, minding each others household keys, knowing when they are there or not,etc.
You will see from both of the above charts that burglary crimes are very seldom followed up by detection of the perpetrator -10%. While robbery from establishments was a much higher detection rate. So what can you do. Lock all doors, turn on alarms, leave on some lights (timers),Lock side gates. Leave a key with neighbours. CCTV is definitely proving to be a deterrent. If installing an alarm a PIR unit in the house helps. You can have your alarm activated to your phone,much cheaper than monitoring. Back of the house is the most vulnerable. Cash is King for Burglars,so keep a minimum amount around. Jewellery Boxes are obvious. Car keys and bags should never be left in a visible spot and never by the front door. Remember, even if you are going out for a few seconds, you bump into a neighbour, a conversation ensues,house burgled by an opportunist.
Finally, the Garda said they recover 1000s of bicycles which they would love to return to their owners. Unfortunately, their owners have neither the Reg. of the bicycle or a simple photo of it, which will mean they can return them. You can see some of those recovered here.http://garda.ie/Search.aspx?Search=stolen+bicycles
It was a very useful night and all of us learned some tips to help us be more secure. We would like to thank the Gardai who came along that night to let us know Burglary from their side.