While the number of gardaí wounded while on duty decreased by 19% last year, over one in 25 frontline personnel still experienced some form of bodily damage while on duty in 2024, reports Breaking News.
According to new data released by An Garda Síochána, 555 gardaí were injured while on duty in 2023, a 126-percent drop from the previous year.
The statistics, which were made public under the Freedom of Information Act, show that assaults accounted for almost half of all gardaí workplace injuries last year, reports Breaking News.
The old Crown Paints plant in Coolock, which was designated to accommodate international protection applicants, was the scene of violent battles with anti-immigration demonstrators in July, injuring three gardaí.
Two off-duty cops who suffered significant injuries in an alleged attack on Dame Street in December are not included on this list, though, reports Breaking News.
Last year, there were 309 recorded occurrences of gardaí being assaulted while doing their duties, with Kerry accounting for over 10% of these cases.
The maximum penalty for attacking or threatening to harm a Garda or any other emergency worker who is on duty was raised by the government from seven to twelve years in November 2023.
According to the most recent Garda staffing statistics, which pertain to October 2024, around 4% of all frontline gardaí were injured on the job last year, reports Breaking News.
But in Kerry, where 41 of the 340 gardaí in the division suffered injuries of some kind, including 30 assaults, the incidence reached 12%.
Among them were four policemen who had been beaten in April after apprehending a man in a wheelchair who then threatened to have terrorists he knew attack Killarney garda station, reports Breaking News.
Other divisions had higher than normal rates of gardaí workplace injuries were Galway and Louth-Cavan-Monaghan, Clare-Tipperary (seven percent), and Sligo-Leitrim (10 percent), where injuries were reported in 2024.
A number of Garda divisions, notably Dublin North Central, which has one of the highest crime rates in the nation, Kildare, Laois/Offaly, and Dublin South, reported a staff injury rate of 2%, which is half of the national average, reports Breaking News.
In Clare-Tipperary, the maximum number of gardaí wounded in a single Garda division was 48 last year, which is two fewer than in 2023.
In addition to the attack of 27 gardaí in Clare-Tipperary, 11 gardaí from the division suffered injuries in automobile accidents while on duty, reports Breaking News.
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