CRIME in Greater Manchester has fallen by 11.7 per cent in a year - more than double the national decrease of five per cent, according to the region's police force.
The national figures have been provided by British Crime Survey (BCS), a nationwide review of crime levels, based upon its own independent door-to-door research, while the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) figures are a compilation of all actual recorded crime in the county.
Unusually, both have been released at the same time.
GMP's three-monthly figures from April to June this year show 11,517 fewer victims of crime - an 11.7 per cent cut in criminality compared to the same period in 2003.
House burglary was down 35.1 per cent, robberies 14.5 per cent, thefts from motor vehicles 20.8 per cent and thefts from vehicles 12.5 percent.
Violent crime was up 6.8 per cent, but GMP and the BCS said this was much to do with new ways of calculating such crimes, which includes many incidents not previously recorded as violence. The violent crime numbers were better than the national average of 12 per cent.
Detection rates were standing at 22.3 per cent against a national average of 18.8 per cent.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Thomas said: "We have targeted the robbers and burglars preying on our communities, and with additional officers, a new style of community-based policing and a focus on improving performance, we will continue to make a difference to the quality of life for people in Greater Manchester.
"We have been actively targeting the violent crime that affects our city and town centres and are bringing those offenders before the courts."
National statistics showed crime as down five per cent, while police-recorded crime - another measure of the problem - had it increased by one per cent.
The figures also suggest the risk of being a victim of crime is at its lowest since 1981 and has fallen from 40 per cent in 1995 to 26 per cent in 2003-04, that is 5.3m fewer people falling victim to crime.
Home Secretary David Blunkett said today: "These are promising results which reinforce the major progress made in fighting crime since 1997.
"Crime overall is falling, as measured by the BCS, after a peak in 1995."
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No wonder the crime figures are down because a few weeks ago the police refused to log a crime because they asked whos property was being stolen and when i said it belonged to the council i was told in only a few words that it was nothing to do with me?? and it should be the council who phones the police>dont beleive everything that figures tell you...
Decrease in REPORTED crimes. Actual crime is getting a lot higher each year, particulary anti-social behaviour. I have been brought up to respect other people and others property...i have never been in trouble but i have had countless crimes commited against me -inc getting my nose smashed to peieces when i was 15 by a 40yo alcoholic. Me and my friend were chased and he was beaten and chased by a knifeman in failsworth -the whole time they were shouting that they would kill us if they caught us (and they were serious - they were high on drugs) we ran to the poilce station and the police (an hour later when someone finally came downstairs) noted it down as 2 youths wanting taxi ride home. Time and again crimes go unreported or unlogged! I will never move back to Manchester and advise friends never to visit - i am scared to death and paranoid when i go back to visit family. I feel ultra safe in London - there are so many police everywhere here - I actually work next door to Scotland Yard for the Civil Service (and yes this involves projects for the home office and the police). I encourage anyone else who was brought up in the worst possible areas (as i was) and made theie way up in the world (unlike all my friends in prison) and who has respect and pride for others to get out of there as soon as they possibly can! LAWLESS