Catching criminals 'not police's top priority'

Catching criminals is no longer a top priority for Britain's police, according to one of the country's top law enforcement officials.

Mr Fox, former chief constable of Northamptonshire, made the comment at a House of Commons committee hearing after Labour's Marsha Singh said: "Detection rates are continuing to worsen. What is going on?"

He admitted "they have done in some places" before adding: "The priority is to reduce crime. Detecting crime does not always reduce crime.

"Our major effort is to take work on the causes of crime and stop crime. Detecting crime becomes a second tier."

Shadow home secretary David Davis is today publishing figures revealing more criminals are evading arrest. He claims the number of crimes rose from 4.6million in 1997-8 to 5.9million in 2003-4, while convictions have hovered around one million.

But the Home Office said figures before 1998-9 should not be used for comparisons as the way statistics were recorded changed that year.