NORTH Yorkshire still has too few police officers, and the criminals know it. That is the thrust of Inspector Neil Burnett's message today.

His frank comments highlight the lack of manpower in rural Ryedale. In the north of the district particularly, the thin blue line is stretched beyond endurance.

Too few police mean that the officers have to work longer hours. This is a vicious circle. It can lead to stress-related sickness, increasing the pressure on those that remain.

Most worrying is the fact that there is still no police cover at all after 1am in the north of the district. Bad news for residents of Pickering, Helmsley and Thornton-le-Dale - but good news for the criminals.

Recorded crime in northern Ryedale has risen by almost a quarter in one year, bucking the downward trend elsewhere. Criminals are able to go about their destructive business with confidence that they will not be caught.

North Yorkshire police is recruiting more officers. We reported in January how Chief Inspector David Kenworthy had won £3 million of extra funding, enough for 60 extra officers.

By March 2002, that will mean the force has more manpower than ever before. So far, however, only one of the new recruits has been assigned to Ryedale.

Mr Kenworthy has a very difficult job in sharing out a relatively small staff over a large county. His priority is to place more officers where the crime rate is higher, and so urban areas like York and Scarborough tend to do better.

As the force grows, he should be in a position to send more police to northern Ryedale. It is important that this is done quickly enough to crack down on rising crime there.

Updated: 10:43 Tuesday, May 29, 2001