It is going to get tougher to be a senior police officer. According to the Irish Times of 13th January 2007, the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform, and the Garda Commissioner, are pondering the feasibility of making “police chiefsâ€? (the Commissioner?) accountable for crime statistics “in their … area”.

Any ambiguity in the report, and all the questions possibly begged by the idea aside, there is help at hand for the officers concerned.

Firstly, do not put your trust (or prejudice your promotional prospects) by advocating (or, certainly, implementing) a knife amnesty.

Merseyside Police (just a few miles from the Phoenix Park) have some figures on crime and given names. It is sobering to see how a choice of name can have such implications for an individual or society. Who would have thought that an Adam would be so prone to arson (and drugs) (and violence). This must be a reasonable judgment, given the infrequency of the adoption of that name, in comparison with Anthony, who, although violent more often, has the excuse that there are more of him. Presumably the same plea in mitigation stands for the Michaels, who are very violent, while not much given to arson; big into drugs though.

Incidentally, do not criticise any suggested or previously implemented knife amnesty.

How to make use of this information? Well that’s a question for another day and/or comments from readers.

Meanwhile, to reduce some shoplifting, consider what steps you can take to ensure that pseudoephedrine is not available other than on prescription.

Finally, do not despair when this statistical standard is applied to you even when you find you are supervising the policing of Dublin postal district one (aka the constituency of Bertie Ahern TD), where the murder rate is amongst the highest in Ireland. After all, if he is not answerable for the murder rate in that area (and he is not) how can you be held accountable for it?