Beds Police is failing to meet crime targets

Bedfordshire Police Authority said it was unhappy with the figures for April to September this year, but said the force had been set “very challenging targets” for cutting crime.

Over the last three years, the authority said, crime in Bedfordshire had fallen by 18 per cent, and the number of victims of serious violence had fallen by 4,500.

But the latest six-monthly figures showed that serious acquisitive crimes had numbered 4,533 against a target of 4,150, and burglaries had numbered 1,803 against a target of 1,364.

Police also missed their 14 per cent target for solving serious acquisitive crime, solving 9.4 per cent of them.

There were 224 crimes that fell into the ‘most serious violence’ category, against a target of 177.

At a meeting of the authority’s Performance and Planning Committee, members were told by the Beds Police chief officer team that changes had been brought in recently to try and improve performance against targets.

New approaches to problem solving and better information management were among the measures, which were in addition to new dedicated investigation teams for crimes such as burglary, robbery and vehicle crime.

Martin Pantling, who chairs the committee, said: “We need to be sure that resources are being matched to priorities and delivering results. The public want to see fewer crimes committed and more criminals arrested.

“The Chief Constable has reassured the committee that improvements in performance for both most serious violence and serious sexual offences are expected in the second half of the year.

“We have also heard about the work to improve the investigation of crime, all of which is positive. However, members do still have some concerns that the targets it set in this area may not be met.”

The authority says it has stepped up its scrutiny of the force, appointing specific members to take charge of looking at the areas of serious violence and investigative skills.