The West Midlands Chief Constable defended his force's record in detecting crime last year, when it failed to meet all four of its targets in charging offenders.
Overall, the force achieved 12 targets - including a major increase in performance in tacking anti-social behaviour and reducing house burglaries by 28.3 per cent - but missed 11.
In the 12 months to the end of this March, Paul Scott-Lee said the force only arrested and charged people in nine out of every 100 cases of vehicle crime, whereas the target was 14 per cent.
It also only detected under half of all violent crime. The force set itself a target of 55 per cent detection but managed to charge suspects in 42.8 per cent of offences.
It also fell short of targets in detecting house burglaries and robberies, although the latter was only missed by 0.1 per cent.
Mr Scott-Lee defended the detection rates and told yesterday's meeting of the West Midlands Police Authority that the force's record was among the best.
"What you as an authority need to know is we are in the upper quarter of detection rates in the country and of similar forces to us. Only one detects more crime than us."
Mr Scott-Lee also said he was "adamant" his force would not "spin" its performance.
"Historically, both government and police have tried to make people feel good by telling them, statistically, they ought to feel better about crime.
"We must be more imaginative about how we communicate. We are not about trying to make people feel better, it's about showing the reality and saying 'actually, you should feel better'."
He said burglary and vehicle crime were at their lowest levels for 25 years and, hypothetically assuming each crime has just one victim, there were 45, 449 less victims in the West Midlands than in the previous year.
Authority member Basil Hylton said: "I noticed the Chief Constable was quasipassionate about not spinning.
"We all know something of the sport from where the term comes and part of the skill of spinning is to make sure people don't know you are spinning.
"The figure he gave us for victims did not actually say how many victims there were. All I am saying is the issue of spin is very much part and parcel of PR techniques."
* Meanwhile, Mr Scott-Lee revealed that 309 West Midlands officers will join a team drawn from across the UK to police the G8 Summit in Edinburgh in July.
The Chief Constable said "some important tactical elements" were being provided by the West Midlands because of the force's skills and reputation.
