Omagh is ‘safest town in Tyrone’, according to crime figures

OMAGH has been adjudged to be the safest place to live among the large towns of Tyrone, according to a detailed analysis of crime figures.

The detailed online study of the crime rates show that Omagh was the safest of Tyrone’s five towns during 2021. There were a total of 52 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months, compared to rates of 55 per 1,000 for Cookstown, 67 for Dungannon and 70 for Strabane.

Positive figures for most crimes helped make Omagh the 368th safest place to live in the North, England, Scotland and Wales, and just the 3,015th most dangerous location.

The figures are provided on the crimerate.co.uk website. It has analysed a whole series of figures from towns and villages both here and across the water, and provides summaries for each.

However, it isn’t all good news for Omagh, and the statistics indicate some areas where improvement appears to be needed.

The incidents of anti-social behaviour, criminal damage and arson, violence and sexual offences were higher in Omagh compared to other areas of Tyrone during last year.

In addition, in May 2021, Omagh town was the most dangerous area in Tyrone for criminal damage and arson offences. During those four weeks, 14 incidents of these crimes were recorded.

More than 500 – 509 to be exact – incidents of violence and sexual offences were recorded during 2021, accounting for around half of the total number of 1,017 crimes.

‘getting worse’

Four crime categories are adjudged by the website to be ‘getting worse’ in 2021 compared to either 2018, 2019 or 2020.

The number of incidents of anti-social behaviour has gone up from 47 to 50 in that four-year period, the number of drugs incidents is also at its worst since 2018, and there are also higher rates of incidents of possession of weapons and public order offences, although the numbers for those categories remain low.

The figures also appear to support the assertion by the website that Omagh is safer than the other towns in the Red Hand county.

For those living here, it is 110 per-cent safer than other Tyrone towns in terms of bicycle theft, 52 per-cent safer in relation to the possession of weapons and 26 per-cent safer in relation to the number of public order offences.

However, on the flipside, Omagh is 11 per-cent more dangerous in relation to anti-social behaviour, 21 per-cent more dangerous for shoplifting and 10 per-cent more dangerous for thefts from the person.

Figures are also analysed for a range of areas throughout the county, including Fintona, Newtownstewart and Dromore, although the number of crimes in most categories is quite small.

The crime rate per 1,000 in Dromore for 2021 was 30, well down on the figure of over 50 recorded for both 2015 and 2016.

In Fintona during 2021 anti-social behaviour accounted for the highest number of crimes,with a rate of 49.83 per 1,000 making it 10 per-cent more dangerous than the overall figure for Tyrone.