Under the cosh

A damning report by Government inspectors concludes there is an urgent need for the force to substantially improve and a specialist Home Office hit squad has been sent in to work closely with police chiefs to tackle problems.

West Yorkshire is one of only five forces to face such action after it was given the lowest rating of "poor" for tackling crimes such as burglary and car theft.

The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary report states: "The force has a number of challenges to meet to ensure its performance meets and maintains the standards expected by the Government and the communities of West Yorkshire."

And the HMIC chief inspector, Sir Keith Povey, has warned that new powers handed to Home Secretary David Blunkett meant that Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn could be sacked if West Yorkshire's performance got worse.

But Mr Cramphorn said the report was out of date and did not reflect recent improvements made in the key policing areas of burglary, car crime and robbery.

And Tom McGhee, West Yorkshire chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, warned the report could damage the morale of officers working hard to turn things round. The Government report graded each force from excellent to poor in 16 categories for the period between December 2002 and December 2003.

West Yorkshire was given just one excellent grade - for its forensic science and scenes of crime teams - had four "good," nine "fair" and two "poor" scores for volume crime, like car theft and burglary, and roads policing.

During the 12-month period violent crime increased from 13.8 per cent to 20.5 per cent, while detection rates dropped from 59.8 per cent to 41.6 per cent, with the proportion of race hate crimes being solved plunging from 52.5 per cent to 24.1 per cent.

The report conceded the force had improved crime-fighting, call-handling and organisational changes over the past six months and admitted West Yorkshire received £26m less in Home Office funding than the average for a metropolitan police force - leaving it 924 police officers short.

It also said the force was successful in tackling robbery, drug-related crime and in breaking up organised crime.

West Yorkshire's Deputy Chief Constable Phillip Brear said that its policing performance since the time of the report was among the most improved in the country.

He said: "West Yorkshire Police now heads the table of the 'most improved performance' of the 43 forces in England and Wales. We have moved further, or faster, than everyone else and those improvements are getting better each month."

Mr Brear said that by the end of May this year the force had undergone a remarkable recovery with 1,310 fewer victims of robbery (down 27 per cent), 8,392 fewer burglary victims (a fall of 23 per cent) and 11,382 fewer victims of vehicle crime - down 18 per cent on 12 months ago.

He said: "Looking just at the last month we are 30 to 40 per cent better than the same month last year. No other force is achieving this. The fact we are improving at such a rate is a great tribute to the force's hard work and determination."

Councillor Mark Burns-Williamson, chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority, said there was no doubt police performance dipped during the period covered by the report.

But he added: "We asked the new Chief Constable to reverse the decline and that is exactly what he has done. The picture has been transformed."

Federation chairman Mr McGhee said the report was a "kick in the teeth" and could have a potentially devastating effect on morale.

He said: "Everyone is trying really hard to improve the detection and reduction of crime and we are not getting any credit for it. People could think it's not worth the effort.

"We have made a dramatic improvement and are probably one of the fastest improving forces in the UK.

"My message to the public would be that officers in West Yorkshire are working hard for all the people in West Yorkshire and are detecting more crime."

Mr McGhee added there was a problem with people feeling they were going to be victims of crime even though crime levels were going down. "This sort of report isn't going to help one bit."

But crime victim Joe Innes claimed police did nothing to help and branded their performance as "absolutely disgusting."

Mr Innes, 54, of Thorpe Edge, Bradford, said his family and other residents were plagued daily by gangs who vandalised their property.

He said on one occasion three cars belonging to the family were damaged when the yobs drove a vehicle into them. They also had a pet parrot stolen when burglars smashed their way through double glazed windows. And on another occasion vandals cut through the fuel pipes of a number of cars on the street to steal petrol.

Mr Innes said: "We have had to put up with vandalism on a daily basis for years. The police know who is responsible but they do nothing. They know it is happening but they are just not interested.

"We even installed video cameras, captured them on film and gave it to the police but still nothing happened. They have taken people in for questioning but then they release them without charge and it just happens again.

"It just gets put in a crime report and we hear nothing more. All we are is a statistic. I would like to see the police out arresting people. I don't know why we pay for them when they don't do anything."