August 12, 2025 | Incident and Crime Statistics , Crime Statistics
Request Number: FOI/15253
Category: Crime/Incident Statistics – Other and Multiple Crime/Incident types
Subject: Canal and River Crime
Request and Answer:
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.
Request 1
Please provide the number of crimes reported on canals and navigable rivers (and their banks /towpaths) in your jurisdiction, please, broken down by year over the past five years. If you record this by calendar year, that would be 2019-2024, if it is by financial year then 2020/21 to 2024/25 please?
Answer
Police recorded crime in Northern where the MO location subtype is “river/canal” (2020/2021 to 2024/2025
| Year | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | 2024/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 10 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 12 |
Request 2
If possible, please provide the breakdown of these crimes by type?
Answer
Police recorded crime in Northern where the MO location subtype is “river/canal” (2020/2021 to 2024/2025
| Offence | Number |
|---|---|
| Violence against the person and sexual offences | 12 |
| Theft Offences | 12 |
| Criminal Damage | 15 |
| All Other Crime | 10 |
Please note
The location subtype indicates that an offence occurred at or within the vicinity of the location. This is management information based on data extracted from a live system and may be subject to change. It is dependent on the information having been input into the system in such a way as to identify those records that are relevant.
The information has been extracted from the police recorded crime data series where the mo location subtype is ‘river/canal’. Records have not been further examined to see if it can be established whether or not any rivers identified were ‘navigable’ and if these records also cover banks/towpaths.