Bedfordshire's police chief has vowed to make visible improvements in the next 12 months, after an annus horribilis in 2007.

Chief Constable Gillian Parker picked out two major low points from last year, the murder of PC Jon Henry in Luton in June, and being ranked the worst-performing police force in the country by the Home Office in October.

But in an exclusive interview with the Times & Citizen newspaper and Bedford Today, Chief Con Parker claimed that the force was already improving.

She said: "PC Henry's murder still has an impact at Luton.There are officers who were with Jon when he was murdered - they are back at work now but they have certainly been affected by what they experienced.

"This was the first time Bedfordshire Police had an officer murdered and it will take time for the force to recover. But one positive did come from it and that was the reaction of the public.

"It was not just ordinary law-abiding people but even the villains who sent cards and put flowers down. It really was a case of the silent majority speaking."

In October Bedfordshire Police was ranked the worst force in the country, according to an unofficial league table created from Home Office statistics.

But the Chief Constable said that the figures were misleading, not least because they did not account for the force losing £4.27 million worth of funding that it should have been entitled to under the Government's formula.

She said: "The disappointing thing about the so-called league table was the impact it had on my staff and on the public perception. I was very angry for my staff.

"It is very important that as a force we are inspected and audited. The public pay for us and have a right to know what they are getting for their money. The problem was what the media did with those figures.

"Compared to other forces, we weren't delivering the same service. But that has to be held up against the funding we get from the Government, and the environment we work in. And that was something that was not taken into account in the audit."

Mrs Parker, who has led Bedfordshire Police for two-and-a-half years, also cited several highs during 2007.

These included the creation of the major crime unit, to tackle offences such as murders; new partnerships such as the Parkside Initiative in Houghton Regis and SoLution in Luton; and equipping officers with high-tech blackberries to allow them to do their job more efficiently.

She said: "Before we formed the major crime unit there would be an average of 60 officers a week taken off their regular duties to investigate murders. But we looked at best practice elsewhere and saw that if we took away 35 officers on a permanent basis they could be dedicated to that.

"It is a more efficient way of working, and now the average is those 35 officers and another four a week work with them.

"Then in November we merged to create a single unit with Hertfordshire Police. That is the first time something like this has been done in the country. That has meant detection rates have improved, and we have seen the benefits this week with the investigation of the death of Robert Gill."

Mrs Parker added: "The 'SoLutions' initiative in Luton has helped us tackle violent crime in the town centre. And across the county we have reduced the rate of violent crime by 18 per cent.

"We now have the fifth lowest rate of violent crime of any force in England and Wales, and a lot of that comes down to things such as Bed:Safe and Luton:Safe, working with pubs, clubs and local authorities.

"And in the last ten years we have detected every murder we have had in Bedfordshire and Luton - we are not the only force that can claim that, but very few can."

The Chief Constable set out her aims for the next 12 months - to reduce crime, reduce the fear of crime, and improve public confidence and satisfaction in Bedfordshire Police.

She said: "This force is filled with people who care about policing and care about Bedfordshire. We want to give the best service we can to the public.

"I would ask people to recognise that policing is a complex business. We have many demands on our time and resources, and many of them are not visible to the public.

"We are limited by the money we get, and by the constraints of being a small force. But we do our best and we always try to improve."