Mr. Mark Toland:

The Garda issued two HQ directives or guidance notes or instructions to staff. They were issued, predominantly, after we had finished most of our PULSE analysis so it is difficult for me to say whether the situation has improved.

We looked at specific crime types. We found that 71% of the crimes that we looked at were reclassified incorrectly and only 13% were correctly reclassified. In some of the other cases there was insufficient information. We looked at particular crimes. We did not look at every crime type. It may well be that some other crime types or lesser offences were reclassified from one crime type to another. We did notice that a lot of crimes were reclassified as a non-crime category or vice versaand suggest that this matter be looked at.

One needs to get the classification right in order to reduce the number of crimes that are reclassified. Incorrect classification generates a huge amount of work. Therefore, we recommend a complete change in the way classification is managed. We also recommend that reclassification only take place once certain factors have been looked at and once the rationale is provided for same. We found that there may be very good reasons for reclassification but they were not recorded on PULSE. Therefore, we looked at something that did not explain why a crime was reclassified and there will be occasions where it is appropriate to do so.