CSO removes ‘under reservation’ designation from garda crime statistics after quality assurance improvements

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) will remove an “under reservation” designation on published crime statistics, after it was deemed that An Garda Síochána have implemented adequate data quality assurance controls to reach the standard required for “official statistical purposes”.

Since 2018, the CSO has published crime statistics under this categorisation, after various issues were identified in the recording of crimes by gardaí on its Pulse crime incident database. The categorisation indicated “that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of statistics published by the CSO”, according to the office’s website.

Issues identified included crimes being reported to gardaí that were not listed on Pulse, the misclassification of crimes, and crimes being classified as “detected” despite no accompanying prosecution.

The issues were first identified in a Garda inspectorate report published in 2014. Four CSO investigations of previously published crime stats found similar issues to the inspectorate report.

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The CSO suspended publishing crime stats twice between 2015 and 2017 because of the issues, before recommencing publishing crime stats “under reservation” in March 2018.

The CSO subsequently made recommendations to An Garda Síochána to improve the quality of statistics collected.

Following subsequent quality reviews carried out by the CSO between 2018 and 2023, the office found progressive improvement in data quality.

In 2023, the CSO said 98 per cent of crimes recorded by gardaí were classified correctly, compared with 93 per cent in 2011.

After Wednesday’s announcement, Jim Dalton, statistician in the Crime and Criminal Justice Section of the CSO, said that the decision to lift the designation was the result of a “range of quality assurance measures” introduced by gardaí over the last number of years.

“Users can have confidence that the risks to data quality are known to AGS, and enhanced controls are now in place to help manage those risks,” he said.

“A key CSO recommendation from previous reviews was that a more formal quality management system for Pulse data be implemented by An Garda Síochána. Such a system has now been put in place to support fit-for-purpose crime data.”

Mr Dalton also noted the benefit of quality crime data to operational policing purposes.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris welcomed the decision by the CSO to lift the “under reservation” designation.

“This milestone decision is a recognition of the progress made by An Garda Síochána in connecting data, technology and Garda personnel in the delivery of information-led policing.

“Modern, professional police services increasingly use data such as crime statistics to prevent and tackle crime. Having this data to aid Gardaí in keeping people safe is only possible through proper and accurate recording by all Garda personnel,” he said.

Mr Harris added: “There is still much more to do, but data and technology now track and sometimes lead virtually every step of policing; forming a data life cycle from the first emergency call, to criminal investigations, to national scale management information and official crime statistics.”

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said the CSO’s decision was “underpinned by significant investment in technology and data improvements in An Garda Síochána, and very significant progress by An Garda Síochána in connecting data, technology and Garda personnel in the delivery of information-led policing.

“Crime statistics are of huge value to informing An Garda Síochána’s operational policy and policing approach in communities across the country. My Department also uses crime statistics to inform our policymaking processes.

“I am pleased to see the recent, significant investments in Garda ICT have contributed to raising the quality of statistical recording to the sufficient level,” Ms McEntee said.