Watford’s top policeman has moved to reassure residents that the town remains a safe place to live despite an increase in crime. 

There have been 356 crimes committed in the borough so far this crime year, which is 8.8 percent up on this time 12 months ago.

But Chief Inspector Dave Wheatley, who said he understands residents’ concerns after recent violent crimes, said that is partially down to how crime is recorded and believes his officers are performing well.

He said: "We are compared to a group of other forces and we are doing a lot better than them in terms of performance. Crime has continued to go down over the last six or seven years in Watford.

"With a diverse community and transient population that come in to the town to work, Watford is a very busy area and you’re always going to get a few incidents out of left field that come along.

"But, by in large, the most serious crimes are between people known to each other. Watford is a safe place to live and work."

The police chief has also told residents they should have "complete confidence" in his officers logging and recording crimes correctly.

It follows a report released by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which assessed 75 incidents recorded as 'no crimes' by Herts Constabulary - with the force adjudged to have got four wrong.

The watchdog found the force call centre should have recorded 181 crimes between November 2012 andOctober 2013 - but 51 were not logged.

A further nine crimes that came in via ‘other systems’ were also not recorded in that period.

Ch Insp Wheatley said: "It was not an integrity issue but more of a process issues, as it is important we understand the crime picture.

"If someone comes to us to report a crime they will get the quality of service they deserve and we have reemphasised the importance about recording crime properly to our officers.

"But compared to some of the other forces in that HMIC report, we deserve a bit of credit."