GREATER Manchester Police have been criticised by Britain's police watchdog following a massive drop in the burglary clear-up rate.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Trefor Morris singled out the force for criticism.

And he blames the change on a new crime strategy of targeting offenders.

Figures for 1995/96 show that only 14pc of all burglaries in the region are cleared up - the second worst result in Britain. The national average is 24pc.

Greater Manchester also clears up just 104 burglaries per 100 officers - well below the average of 123 and less than half the success rate of neighbouring Lancashire at 221 per 100 officers which is specially praised by Sir Trefor. The dramatic drop in clearing up domestic burglaries from 1994/95 is five times greater than the fall in detection for any other force.

Sir Trefor identifies Greater Manchester and Northumbria as forces "with high levels of domestic burglary that perform comparatively poorly."

He explains: "For Greater Manchester, detections reduce substantially following the launch in June 1995 of a crime strategy which aimed to reduce crime by targeting offenders. In doing so the force redeployed 20 detectives, previously engaged full time, on interviewing convicted prisoners.

"The force now places much greater emphasis on improving performance through primary detections."

GMP is also identified as one of four forces with a low detection rate of violent crime. Just 52pc of violent crimes are detected against the national average of 65pc.

Only 129 offences of violent crime were detected per 100 officers in 1995/96 against the national average of 169.

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