Police have hit back at a “wrong” claim in a national newspaper that Watford has “the worst” area for catching thieves in the UK.

The Telegraph report said that police have failed to solve a single theft in more than eight in 10 neighbourhoods.

The report said: “A neighbourhood in central Watford, Hertfordshire, was the worst with all 274 of its thefts over the past three years closed with no suspect identified or charged.”

Hertfordshire Constabulary said they “don’t understand how the figures have been calculated” and claimed attempts to contact the paper over the investigation have been ignored.

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Chief Inspector Di Whiteside said: “Figures quoted in a recent national newspaper saying that Watford has the worst detection rate for theft in the country are wrong and don’t reflect the positive impact we are having.

“Whilst we don’t understand how the figures have been calculated, we believe they focus on Watford town centre.”

The Telegraph also claimed that Holywell, Tudor and Garston are the worst areas in Watford, with between 100% and 98.8% of thefts unsolved.

According to Herts Police there have been a total of 374 reported thefts from a person over the past three years in the Watford central ward, and robbery has decreased by 16 offences this year.

Di Whiteside added: “Our figures show that our detection rate for theft in the town centre is just under one per cent, which although sounds low needs to be understood in the context of the complexity of the night-time economy, which has historically always inflated crime rates.

“The public has a huge role in driving policing priorities hence our focus on robbery, anti-social behaviour and arson which have dedicated resources allocated that are supported by preventative patrols.

“Of course we need to look at our theft detection rates and get to understand them better, this will be a complex piece of work given the diverse nature of theft which has many different categories such as from a person or place.

“The key is having the evidence to take an investigation forward and in some instances we simply have nothing to go on.”

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