The Northern Ireland Police Authority has said that the RUC had made a "measurable improvement" in its performance in the year ending March 2000, writes Paul Tanney.
Presenting the report for 1999/2000, the authority chairman, Mr Pat Armstrong, said the detection rate for violent crime had climbed to 62 per cent from 55.7 per cent. This was 12 per cent in excess of the target set for the force by the authority.
With 30 per cent of crimes detected, the 27 per cent target for the overall crime detection rate had also been exceeded. There was an increase of 17 per cent in the number of people arrested and charged with drug offences. This was far in excess of the 3 per cent target figure.
Mr Armstrong said the force had only met or exceeded nine of its 20 performance targets. "Disappointingly, 11 were not fully met," he said. In each case, explanations had been sought from the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. According to the report, the number of recorded crimes had increased by 9.2 per cent from 109,503 to 119,111.