Police deny 'massaging' figures

Crime has fallen by 6% in London in the past year

Scotland Yard has rejected claims it "massages" its crime figures for political reasons.

The Evening Standard claimed a report from the Metropolitan Police Authority showed things were made harder for victims to report crime.

The Tory and Lib Dem candidates bidding to become mayor of London both seized on the claims made by the newspaper.

But the Metropolitan Police said crime in the capital was falling and their figures were subject to great scrutiny.

The newspaper said the report, which has not been seen by the BBC, said published crime statistics were "inaccurate" and sometimes "dishonest".

'Create obstacles'

It said although the Met's "central policies" were to count crime honestly "borough commanders and senior management team members are constantly dealing with the tension between recording crimes accurately [and] the ongoing pressure from central government to meet crime reduction targets".

The paper said the report, which was written in February, claimed local police stations had adopted practices to create obstacles stopping people from reporting some crimes.

For example, some police stations were said to only allow victims of mobile phone theft to report the crime if they can quote the phone's IMEI serial number, it said.

Not many people will have this written down, and therefore cannot report the crime, it was claimed.

Any suggestion that the 'Met fixes' its crime figures would be misleading and not only damages the reputation of the service Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson

Brian Paddick, the Lib-Dem mayoral candidate and a former senior Met officer said: "This report is clear evidence of what I have been saying all along - that police-recorded crime statistics don't reflect the true picture."

Tory mayoral candidate Boris Johnson said: "It is unacceptable that our honest officers are made to effectively shove reported crime under the carpet. When I am mayor I will end this fiddling of the figures."

The Met later put out a statement rejecting the paper's claims.

Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said: "Any suggestion that the 'Met fixes' its crime figures would be misleading and not only damages the reputation of the MPS, but would be disparaging to the thousands of men and women from the Met who every day are risking their lives and having major success in tackling crime to make London safe."

He said the figures were subject to a "high level of scrutiny" and the force had approached the MPA to scrutinise the data.

"Although the scrutiny made a number of recommendations in relation to crime reporting processes, nothing was found that changed the over-arching picture of crime in London, and the significant success achieved in reducing crime in recent years that the crime figures demonstrate," he added.

On Wednesday Scotland Yard released statistics showing a six per cent fall in crime in the past year.