CRIME and antisocial behaviour in Essex has plummeted despite growing pressure on the county’s force to cut its spending and staff.

Essex Police continued to smash drug dealing and organised crime gangs, lock up burglars and drive down incidents of yobs causing a nuisance.

In his first quarterly report of the year, Essex Police’s Chief Constable Jim Barker-McCardle revealed the force continued to slash crime despite shedding staff and resources as it makes £45million worth of savings over the next four years.

During 2010/11, the force saw its lowest recorded crime level for 11 years, with 1,351 fewer offences reported to police compared with the previous year.

In the same year, there were nearly 7,000 fewer incidents of antisocial behaviour and by the end of March this year, the force had cut burglaries by four per cent.

Speaking exclusively to this paper, Chief Constable Jim Barker-McCardle said his own research had revealed there were 41,000 fewer crimes recorded in the past year than in 2003 – a 28 per cent reduction.

Mr Barker-McCardle said he was pleased with the latest crime figures, and vowed standards would not slip despite the force having to shed hundreds of support staff as well as not replacing police officers who leave.

He said: “These are extremely challenging and complicated times, so I’m really pleased with how performance has gone over the past 12 months.

“That reflects extremely well on the men and women who are police officers and staff in Essex.

“We have been putting a lot of work into the operational blueprint for policing in Essex, which will be addressing that big challenge of how do you continue to make Essex safer with less money and people?

“I’m still confident Essex is going to be a strong force, not a thin blue line.

“We will still have significant capability, and the priority will continue to be to drive down crime and antisocial behaviour.

“We will still be able to do that, but we have to find smarter ways of working with fewer officers and staff.”