Few believe our crime figures, says Met chief

Hesaid the way crimes are categorised has been changed so frequently they have become "bewildering".

And the Commissioner suggested British authorities adopt the same system as New York - where crimes are recorded in a more straightforward way and the figures are trusted by the public.

At the second Colin Cramphorn Memorial Lecture at the Policy Exchange yesterday, Sir Ian said the media and politicians have also weakened confidence in crime statistics.

He said: "Few question the crime figures in New York. Residents largely accept that their city is safer than it was.

"And that is because New York has not fiddled about with how they collect crime statistics in the way the UK has."

The Commissioner added that many people would be surprised at how many crimes are recorded and said, for example, that CS gas attacks were until recently classed as gun-enabled crime.

He mocked a definition of knife crime provided for police which includes an exhaustive list of weapons - such as machetes, axes, crossbows and darts.

"Then is added, and I quote again, 'this list is not meant to be exhaustive', presumably in case someone is stabbed to death with a cocktail stick," he said.

The solution to the lack of public trust, he added, was simplified counting rules that would make figures more credible. Sir Ian said a step-change was happening in capital policing but in a "rather unstated British way". Recent figures show the rate of crime declining in London.

He also welcomed Boris Johnson's plan for crime maps. But Sir Ian rejected the Mayor's call for the Met to lose its national counter-terrorism role, which the Mayor says would mean the capital could have a politically accountable Commissioner.