Police chiefs attack Blunkett's performance-target blueprint

Police chiefs have made a fresh attack on the Government's growing list of performance indicators and targets, describing them as bureaucratic and offering little benefit to society. There is also criticism of last year's anti-street crime initiative for being too expensive and resulting in other crimes, such as burglary, being ignored.

Their outspoken comments, in a report published today, reflects the growing resentment felt by many senior officers at what they believe is unwelcome interference by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary.

The criticisms are made by three chief constables and several senior officers interviewed by a criminologist for a research paper by a right-wing think-tank. Terry Grange, Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys, said most of the performance indicators and statistics were pointless, describing them as "no good and little use".

The Chief Constable of Hampshire, Paul Kernaghan, said the Home Office's indicators resulted in other important police work being poorly resourced because "only what got measured got done".

The report, Going local. Who should run Britain's police, is published by the Policy Exchange and co-written by Barry Loveday, reader in criminal justice at Portsmouth University. Almost all the officers interviewed attacked the Home Office's use of performance indicators and targets.

The report says: "Common complaints were that they encompassed useless or already well-known information, and they skewed policing priorities, that collecting them took too much time, and that they failed to take into account local conditions, or causes of crime outside the police's control."

There was also widespread criticism of the Safer Streets, campaign, in which the 10 police forces with the most serious mugging problems were told by Tony Blair to bring the crime under control by the autumn. Chief constables were forced to spend £67m and divert staff to tackle the problem. Some senior officers said this meant other initiatives, such as cuting the number of road deaths, had to be abandoned, and it cost an estimated £14,500 to reduce each mugging.

The report notes: "In Nottinghamshire, an officer complained that street robbery only accounted for only 2,700 out of 150,000 recorded offences over the previous 12 months, or less than 2 per cent of the area's total crime." The officer said "Thirteen thousand burglaries and countless traffic offences [were] now being sidelined".

Despite the criticism, Mr Blunkett believes league tables and targets are crucial in driving up standards within the police and helping to spread best practice. Last November, the Home Secretary published a new list of priorities that included 19 targets.