Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain of North Yorkshire Police has effectively admitted that until recently the real level of crime for the county was being swept under the carpet by misrecording (13 per cent rise in crime ‘down to better recording’, The Press, 25 January).

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan’s spin on this year’s crime increase of 13 per cent - which is five per cent more than the national average - is that it is simply an adjustment.

The truth, however, is that thousands of reported crimes have been hidden from investigation, whether by design or accident, with the biggest rises showing in violence (+27 per cent), threats (+75 per cent) and weapon-use (+35 per cent).

Significantly, these are the crimes most likely to be prevented by police officers on the streets. Yet Ms Mulligan continues to try to convince us that increases in street crime have nothing to do with her policy of stripping away officers from front line policing to resource back office jobs.

Rather than excuses or reassurances, what we now want to know from Ms Mulligan is what action she proposes to take to counteract the true level of escalating crime.

Allan Charlesworth,

Old Earswick, York