A damning report by a Sunday newspaper which labelled Hertfordshire Constabulary as the fourth worst police force in the country has been criticised by the county's chief constable.

The report by The Observer graded the country's police forces in terms of detection rates, complaints, sick leave and response times to incidents and 999 calls.

Chief Constable Paul Acres was so incensed by his force's rating he wrote to the paper demanding to know why only five of the 33 criteria used by government inspectors were used in the report.

He wrote: "I have difficulty in understanding how you The Observer can assess Hertfordshire which, for example, has the fourth lowest crime rate and the lowest level of violent crime in the country, as one of the worst five forces."

Chief Con Acres added his force had more demanding target times for incident and 999 calls with Hertfordshire police aiming to answer emergency calls within ten seconds compared to 15 seconds nationally.

He added: "None of those five criteria directly reflect ministerial priorities or the long term government targets to reduce domestic burglary or vehicle crime."

The Metropolitan Police fared even worse in the paper's ratings coming out as the second worst in the country.

A spokesman said: "We always strive to improve our performance but when you look at the clear up rates for the most serious offences such as murder or sexual offences we believe they compare favourably with other forces around the country."

December 5, 2001 11:05

KEVIN BURCHALL