Covid pandemic sees drop in public order and shoplifting in Longford

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic has led to a fall-off in public order and shoplifting offences, new figures have revealed.

Approximately 206 penalties and people were convicted of being either drunk in public or using threatening behaviour in Longford between January and October 2020, 25 fewer than the 231 which was recorded between January and December 2019.

It was a similar set of affairs in terms of theft related offences.

Eighty nine offences resulted in convictions between January 2020 and October 2020 with 56 individuals receiving convictions.

This compares to 101 recorded convictions and 63 people receiving criminal sanctions between the 12 month period from January to December 2019.

Assaults, however, showed an upward trend with 34 convictions for Section 2 and 3 assaults between January and October last year, 12 ahead of the 22 convictions which were handed down between January and October 2019.