VIOLENT crime does not pay it emerged this week when Government figures showed that nine out of every 10 violent crimes committed in Cheshire last year were solved.

As information showed that reports of crime in the county dropped by more than a tenth in comparison with three years ago, an Audit Commission survey of all police forces in England and Wales showed that Cheshire officers successfully investigated 89 per cent of all violent incidents in 1997/8. This represented only a small increase on figures for violent crime detection in 1994/5. Burglaries were less successful, with only 28 per cent of incidents being successfully completed.

Incidents of burglary have plummeted by more than 30 per cent since 1995.

The crime rate continues to lie below the national average with only 60 reported incidents per thousand people in Cheshire against 78 per thousand on average. This was a fall of 10 per cent on figures for 1994

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