POLICE chiefs in Greater Manchester today admitted they are concerned about rising levels of violent crime - and the fact that they are catching too few criminals.

But they believe that the vast majority of people in the county - the force records more crime than any provincial force in Britain - is satisfied with how the region's police officers perform.

Greater Manchester Police has been singled out for criticism for catching too few violent criminals.

The Chief Inspector of Police, Trefor Morris, has urged the Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the West Midlands forces, in addition to the Metropolitan Police, to review their handling of violent crime.

He has accused the forces of "under performing" in dealing with so much violence - but solving so little of it.

The Chief Inspector in his annual report said: "They need to look very carefully at their performance."

Commenting on the criticism today Supt Mel Pelham, GMP's head of management information, said: "Obviously we are concerned about the levels of violent crime."

But he added: "One must not just look at this information in isolation , but with other factors and local conditions. As violent crime covers a wide range of offences any interpretation of performance must take account of the mix of crime and the degree of difficulty in policing particular areas."

He said violence fell by 7.7 per cent in Greater Manchester last year compared to a national rise of 7 per cent and sexual offences were reduced by more than 9 per cent compared to a four per cent increase nationwide.

Supt Pelham said the detection rate for overall crime in Greater Manchester is 33.7 per cent - which compares with a national average of 26 per cent.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said the force had a detection rate for violent crime of 57 per cent.

The spokesman added: "As a metropolitan force we have a high volume of violent crimes in the form of street robberies and robbery of business premises and the investigation of these offences require a great deal of resourcing whereas in the case of domestic violence, where the victim knows the offender, then investigation may be far more straightforward."

The spokesman added that performance indicators suggested that 81 per cent of the public in Greater Manchester is satisfied with the way the police handle violent crime.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.