‘People don’t like complaining’

Public urged to report antisocial behaviour and rural theft

The public has been urged to report incidents like antisocial behaviour in estates and thefts in rural areas, despite a reluctance to inform the authorities of such problems.

Last week's meeting of Tipperary Joint Policing Committee received a presentation on a new antisocial behaviour strategy proposed by the county council. Senior Executive Officer Cora Morrissey said the strategy would differ little from the existing one; among the changes are references to racism, data protection and social media abuse geared towards council officials.

A key aim of the strategy is to prevent and reduce antisocial behaviour among Tipperary's 5,500 local authority tenants.

But Cathaoirleach of the JPC Cllr Noel Coonan said a key drawback with the strategy has always been the lack of a facility for tenants to make anonymous complaints about unruly neighbours. He said he has often encountered cases where a tenant is living beside a “neighbour from hell”, but they won't put their name to a report to the council or the gardaí for fear of making their situation worse.

“People don't like complaining, and we certainly don't want to make a bad situation worse,” Cllr Coonan observed.

Ms Morrissey said the council liaises closely with the gardaí where antisocial behaviour is reported in its housing estates. The council does follow up on recurrent complaints and cases where several parties make a complaint. Chief Superintendent Colm O'Sullivan said the gardaí also investigate anonymous complaints and can often deal with offenders under the Public Order Act or through the use of antisocial behaviour orders.

LOGGING COMPLAINTS

Cllr Anne Marie Ryan said the latter have proven an effective tool in tackling antisocial behaviour in estates. She agreed that people are often reluctant to make complaints and turn to local representatives to report matters for them. It is important to log complaints so that a record can be kept, Cllr Ryan said.

Cllr David Dunne said councillors tend to get caught in the middle of situations where there is a “blame game” between tenants. He wanted a mechanism for dealing with people playing loud music late at night, which can be detrimental to the health of neighbours and can sometimes lead to matters escalating.

Cllr Ger Darcy agreed that a lot of people put up with such examples of antisocial behaviour because they are “too shy or quiet to complain”. Such people need to be facilitated in taking action against the minority of tenants causing problems, Cllr Darcy said.

Deputy Martin Browne wanted people to be encouraged to report drug dealing in estates. People tend not to make a complaint because of the perceived length of time it takes to deal with the issue, he opined.

Ms Morrissey made the point that it can be difficult to prove that someone is causing antisocial behaviour. There has to be evidence of “nuisance, annoyance or disturbance” in order to break a tenancy.

But the message she wanted to go out was for people to log complaints with the council's customer services desk. The complainant's name would be taken but it would not be released, and the matter would be followed up on confidentially, Ms Morrissey assured.

PROPERTY CRIME UP 16%

The meeting was later informed of a 16% increase in property crime across Tipperary in the year to date, rising from 1,434 offences last year to 1,669 in 2023. These included all robbery and burglary offences, as well as various theft offences. The Nenagh district saw a 24% increase in this category to 370 offences this year.

Again, Cllr Coonan spoke of a reluctance for people to report property crime. People living in rural areas in particular no longer report thefts of agricultural equipment because they feel nothing would be done about it.

“What's the point?”, people ask, Cllr Coonan said.

Supt O'Sullivan believed there had actually been an increase in reporting of such offences this year. He appealed to the public to continue in this vein, saying every unreported crime makes it harder for the gardaí to build a picture of what is happening in a particular area.

If, for example, a garda stops a vehicle containing suspected stolen equipment, he or she would not know how to proceed if they did not have the information about what was stolen and where it had been stolen from. “If you don't report it, it may encourage [criminals] back into the area,” Supt O'Sullivan added. “It's sending out a signal.”

He said many of the property crime figures for 2023 related to thefts from shops earlier in the year. A large proportion of these were “smash and grab” offences perpetrated by one particular gang of criminals targeting cigarettes, alcohol and cash.

The Nenagh district had been particularly affected, but these offences were not unique to the district and have thankfully been stopped since, Supt O'Sullivan said.