Police told to target real criminals and to give priority to more serious crimes

Police should spend their time catching serious criminals rather than persecuting minor offenders, a policing review will say.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan's report will signal the end of a controversial target which encourages officers to treat offences in the same way.

The rules, which give as much credit for solving a murder as they do for fining a litterbug, have been blamed for police targeting normally lawabiding citizens.

Examples include a child who was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber at another youngster.

Sir Ronnie will next week say the system which tells police to solve a set number of all crimes - regardless of how serious they are - should go.

Instead, officers will be told to focus on rape, woundings and killings, as well as burglary and other crimes which distress the public.

Rank-and-file officers are expected to welcome the move.

The Police Federation says pressure to meet the "Offenders Brought to Justice" target has led them to "criminalise Middle England".

Sir Ronnie will say the emphasis on securing any conviction has "produced the unintended effect of officers spending time investigating crimes with a view to obtaining a detection, even when that is clearly not in the public interest".

He said more "proportionate weight" should be given to the different levels of seriousness applied to the different offences.

The Home Office will accept his recommendation and begin to rank crimes according to the harm they cause to the public.