Force denies 'massaging' figures

Chief Constable Ian McPherson was urged to clarify the force's stance

A police force has been accused of massaging crime figures after an internal memo was leaked.

The memo, from Norfolk Police, suggested officers have a target to "keep recorded crime down" and should only record crime if there is evidence.

The memo, thought to be from a senior officer, was leaked to the Norwich-based Eastern Daily Press.

The force denied encouraging officers to downgrade incidents, claiming the allegations stem from a clumsy e-mail.

Part of the memo reads: "One of the targets for this year is to keep recorded crime down to 1,500. To this end I have been through the crimes for this year.

'Clarify stance'

"We appear to be making things difficult for ourselves by 'criming' things that aren't actually crimes."

It gave the example of damage to a car window with no evidence that anybody had entered the vehicle, no witnesses and no explanation of what happened.

Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who represents North Norfolk, said Chief Constable Ian McPherson should clarify his force's stance.

Mr Lamb said: "I have no problem with officers being robust in the way that they analyse reports that come in. And the police must try initiatives to prevent crime. But people must be confident that figures aren't being massaged."

A police spokesman said: "Well-intentioned but unfortunate, the note is misleading and its contents have been interpreted in the most damaging way to the organisation and the service."

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Learmonth said the resulting media coverage was "misleading to the public".

"We work to very high standards and will not tolerate any attempts to falsify crime figures," he said.

'Gross dis-service'

"The constabulary has one of the best-resourced teams of crime recording auditors in the country - a team of three people dedicated solely to monitoring the ethical recording of crime in the county.

"This demonstrates our commitment to accurate and ethical crime recording processes and it is these processes that lead to accurate data."

Mr Learmonth pointed out that Norfolk has a low crime level and over the past five successive years, crime has reduced.

"We are rightly proud of what has been achieved - any suggestion that it results from malpractice does our staff a gross dis-service," he added.