West Midlands Police was the only force in England and Wales to record a rise in crime in the last three months of last year, new figures have shown.
According to the Home Office quarterly bulletin, the force saw a one per cent rise in crime compared with a national fall of six per cent.
Burglary, which rose by more than a fifth, and robberies, which were up by 17 per cent, and fraud crimes fuelled the rise.
The force Det Chief Con Dave Thompson said he was “disappointed” by the figures.
“The figures represent a snapshot of a particular quarterly period and are not totally representative of our full year’s performance, a year during which the force underwent the biggest organisational change in its history.”
He said the force had better results in December and that success had continued in 2011. He said they had hit the ground running with renewed efforts at the start of the new performance year.
