New Government figures reveal that West Yorkshire Police are winning the war on crime.

But the force is still trailing behind similar forces in the UK, and West Yorkshire officers are catching fewer criminals.

Police performance in the year up to the end of March 2004, monitored by the Home Office, showed that crime was being cut across the country, with burglaries down by eight per cent, robberies cut by nine per cent and a reduction in vehicle crime of more than six per cent.

But while police were cutting crime they were also solving fewer of those that occurred. More than half of the 43 forces had a lower detection rate than the previous year, which fell by 1.7 per cent nationally.

In West Yorkshire the figure was worse, with a 1.9 per cent decline in the success rate for the investigation of crimes committed - well down on comparable forces like South Yorkshire, Merseyside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

The West Yorkshire force is also lagging behind other similar forces in the reduction of crime - despite managing to slash the crime figures. Domestic burglaries were down by more than 17 per cent, vehicle crime by 13.2 per cent and robberies were cut by more than 24 per cent, an average improvement of nearly 18 per cent.

West Yorkshire also fared well in front-line policing, a new category in the performance figures.

The time spent by police officers on front-line duties was 68 per cent, five per cent above similar forces and the national average, and only two per cent behind the top-scoring force.

Front-line duties included dealing with incidents, visible patrols and interviewing suspects - as well as preparing reports and case files.

West Yorkshire Police said the figures reflected the start of an upturn in its performance, which had gathered pace since the beginning of the new financial year.

"We have been seeing consistent month-on-month improvements in key areas," said Deputy Chief Constable Phill Brear.

He said robberies, house burglaries and vehicle crime were down by 44 per cent, 43 per cent and 33 per cent respectively from the start of April to the end of June this year, compared to the previous year.

"It's down to working harder and working smarter and we're now closing the gap on our other most similar forces," said Mr Brear.

"While these figures show we have still some ground to make up in terms of reducing and investigating crime, we've closed the gap significantly in the first part of this year and are rapidly closing on the other forces."

Chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority Councillor Mark Burns-Williamson said: "We began the current year knowing we had some work to do. Now we are demonstrating that crime can be brought down in a sustainable way, thanks to the additional resources the Authority raised for policing through the council tax and the hard work by police officers and staff across the force."