Crime in West Yorkshire has fallen for the third year running.

There were 9,212 fewer offences in 2006-7 - 3.6 per cent down on the previous year.

Violent crime - including gun crime - and thefts of vehicles decreased, but robberies, house burglaries and thefts from vehicles were all up.

The sanction detection rate - when a person is charged, cautioned, reported for summons or taken to court - was slightly up at 25.7 per cent.

The figures, in West Yorkshire Police Authority's annual report, also showed police numbers hit a record with 5,669 officers at the end of March this year.

West Yorkshire also has more Police Community Support Officers than any force outside the Metropolitan Police.

But the force failed by nearly two per cent to hit the target of increasing the proportion of recruits from ethnic minority groups to 7.4 per cent.

The amount of time officers spent on frontline duties went up to 72 per cent and criminal forfeiture and confiscation orders rocketed to 226.

The Force also met targets for answering 999 calls within ten seconds, at more than 90 per cent, and arriving at nearly 94 per cent of emergencies within 15 minutes.