CRIME across the Wycombe area has been cut once again – but the area’s top policeman still wants even more from his officers.

The end of year crime statistics reveal there were 8,745 recorded crimes in the Wycombe Local Police Area (LPA) between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013 – down from 10,032 the previous year.

Superintendent Gilbert Houalla said while he was “reasonably pleased” to have seen crime fall under his leadership for a third consecutive year, he believes his officers are capable of even better.

He said: “I don't mean this in an arrogant way, but since I’ve been here our performance has improved considerably in terms of both reduction and detections.

“So I’m reasonably happy with our performance. But I always think we can do more, I demand more, and I take it very personally when crime takes place on my patch.

“I make my officers work hard, I don’t like to see them in the police station and I hold them to account when crime takes place when they’re on duty, so although I’m reasonably happy, I want more.”

Violent crime was slashed by 13 percent and sexual offences dropped by 3.7 percent, with Wycombe police hitting their detection rate targets.

Domestic burglary has been cut by 27.9 percent and theft from vehicles – a bug bearer over recent years – has also been cut by 20.8 percent.

Supt Houalla said: “We’ve done pretty well this year, across the board we’ve reduced crime with the help of our partners. I attribute our success to our ability to identify crime hot spots, trends and offenders and we put resources on them.”

“We’ve reduced motor vehicle theft by 30 percent (a combined figure of 34.3 percent for theft from, and theft of a vehicle), that’s an example of identifying the hot spots.

“I’m very pleased about violent crime, that’s the one people fear. I’m absolutely delighted about domestic violence – of all the targets, that’s the one I’m pleased about. We have the best detection rate for that in the force.”

The only blot on Supt Houalla’s copybook is failing to achieve the 17 percent detection rate target for burglary, which stood at 10.5 percent for the past year.

But officers are already trying to put that right, with the detection rate rocketing to 59 percent for the first four weeks of the new ‘crime year’.

Supt Houalla said: “That [10.5 percent] is well below the target, it’s disappointing.

“Last year we achieved our detection target because we were dealing with local criminals. The vast majority, the prolific criminals, we caught them and they are in prison.

“But what we’re left with now are people who travel from outside the area to commit crime here.

“So the ability to detect criminals is reduced as you don’t have the local information, the ability to get a warrant to raid a house - you don’t know where they’re coming from – that’s what we’ve faced this past year.”

Hate crime is up 3.4 percent but Supt Houalla is not too concerned as he believes it means more people now have trust in police to report it.

He said: “Historically, hate crimes and sexual offences are under reported, so the more I hear about the more I can deal with.”