THAMES Valley Police is “poor” at solving crime, according to its annual assessment by inspectors.
The police report card by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, released on Wednesday, gave the force an overall rating of “fair” but graded it poor on solving crime, largely due to a weak detection rate for assaults with less serious injury.
Newburytoday.co.uk's sister publication, the Newbury Weekly News, recently reported that between April 1 and November 30 last year, there had been an 11.4 per cent increase in all crime with in West Berkshire, compared with the same period in 2008, with serious sexual offences up by 75 per cent and serious violent crime up by 68.2 per cent.
The latest figures, up to February 28, show the increase is down to 6.6 per cent in all crime within the district, although the sanction detection rate - the number of people charged or cautioned following an arrest - is down from 22.6 per cent in the ten-month period last year to just 17.9 per cent this year (2009/10).
The Thames Valley force has acknowledged that it needs to improve detection rates but defended its position by saying that a plan is in place which has already seen improvement since the performance data from six months ago, which the recent report card is based on.
It also said more serious sexual offences and hate crimes have been detected in the last year.
Thames Valley Police chief constable, Sara Thornton, said: “The police report card is a new national approach to measuring police performance and does provide some valuable information for the public in Thames Valley.
“Our priorities agreed with the Police Authority over the last few years has been to reduce crime and improve confidence and satisfaction and the report card shows we are doing just that.
“I am concerned about the grade for solving crime and we have agreed with the police authority that this will be a priority for the next year.”
Aside from the poor rating, Thames Valley Police has been graded fair in local crime and policing, protecting from serious harm and confidence and satisfaction.
And the force says crime has fallen across Thames Valley, with 3,000 fewer victims of burglary, car crime and robbery over the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months.
Police added that a 14 per cent drop in burglaries was seen in the six months from July to December last year, when the force ran Operation Breaker.
In addition, police say victim satisfaction rates have increased, while the number of people killed or seriously injured on the force’s roads are showing a downward trend, owing to the work by the roads policing department together with the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership.