By Liam Cahill
In the lead-up to Christmas there are increased calls for crime awareness – particularly concerning petty crimes and scams.
The issues, raised by Labour Cllr. Dermot Lacey and another source close to this newspaper, concern a number of false identity scams, household vandalism and petty crimes.
Locally, there are reports of people claiming to be from Dublin City Council, a woman using clothes washing facilities in a local elderly home in Dublin 4 and people using false identities when knocking on doors.
“I’ll be attending the Policing Committee meeting next week and I hope to raise security concerning the elderly,” said Cllr. Lacey.
Separately, there are more serious reports about criminal “gangs” actively targeting houses in the Swords area in the daytime hours. According to a source, gangs target houses in transit vans, rip burglary alarms off houses and, in some cases, distract householders while others carry out a burglary.
Recent statistics from the Gardaí indicate that the level of crime in the Swords area has actually declined by 20% in recent years. Locally however, crime numbers, provided by the Ringsend/Irishtown and Sandymount Garda Station, suggest the most common crimes involved laptops, phones and domestic burglaries.
“Mobile phone theft is on the rise as gangs target high-value smart phones,” said Sgt Alan Robinson of the National Crime Prevention Unit speaking at the launch of the Garda’s Crime Prevention Day on Monday which highlighted the specific increase in smart phones robberies.
“Avoid using phones while walking on the street as it means you are distracted and won’t be able to react to prevent your device being taken from you in mid-sentence.”
Pictured: Symbols that gangs are apparently using to identify targets for burglary in Swords.
