Noted in the Newry Democrat (03/07/07) that the crime clear up rate has fallen in the Newry and Mourne area. Under 21% of crimes were cleared up as against over 32% during the previous year.
What I find most interesting was the comment by Chief Inspector Cordner that the fall in the clear up rate was because the Home Office had changed the way an offence was deemed to be cleared up. It appears that previously a crime was considered cleared up if an individual was named and was told that they were considered a suspect. Now the definition has been changed to a definition that a crime is cleared up if the PSNI are able to supply sufficient evidence to charge and secure a conviction in court.

Now forgive my ignorance but I would have thought that a crime would not have been considered cleared up (closed) until a conviction was secured. It would appear that the previous method allowed the police to make their figures look good without ever relating their success to the outcome of court proceedings. To merely have to tell someone that they were considered a suspect in order to have a crime listed as cleared up seems far to easy a way to measure performance. I wonder if they were receiving a performance related bonus based on the original methodology?