North Wales Police is one of the top five forces for recording crime figures accurately, it's been revealed.
A new report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary showed that 94 per cent of crimes in the region were recorded properly.
The news was welcomed by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC (pictured left).
But the Commissioner stressed there was "no room for complacency" and pledged to push for further improvements.
Mr Roddick said: "The integrity of crime figures is vitally important for a whole host of reasons, not least to provide reassurance to the public in general and victims in particular that the police are doing their job properly.
"Recording crimes reliably is important as it not only enables me to set policing strategy for North Wales, it also gives people confidence in the policing service they receive.
"The report shows that North Wales Police is among the best five forces in England and Wales in relation to the accurate recording of crime statistics.
"HMIC found that out of 78 cases where a crime should have been recorded that 73 were recorded by the Force and this is the fifth best compliance rate in this part of the report which means the force has a compliance rate of 94 per cent.
"Whilst, overall, the figures for North Wales Police are positive there is certainly no room for complacency and there is always room for improvement.
"I take my responsibilities in this regard very seriously and scrutiny arrangements have been put in place in relation to the way North Wales Police records crime.
"The scrutiny process has included ensuring the force has the right leadership in place to ensure that crimes are recorded properly.
"Quite deliberately, my Police and Crime Plan for North Wales does not include specific targets other than the overall reduction of crime.
"Specific targets can lead to a target culture which puts pressure on police to keep their crime figures down."
Deputy Chief Constable Gareth Pritchard said: “I welcome sight of the full report although HMIC provided North Wales Police with its interim findings earlier this year in May.
"The full report endorses the interim account and confirms we have a very high compliance rate in how we record crime, i.e. 94 per cent which I understand is the fifth highest in England and Wales and very encouraging.”
“Following the interim report we have an action plan and Governance Group chaired by a Chief Superintendent on which I also sit and our focus is to improve our crime recording processes further still.”
“Since May we have strengthened our procedures by reviewing and reducing the number of decision makers and so a small cadre of experienced and highly trained staff in the field of Home Office Crime Recording rules can now focus on achieving uniformity and accuracy across the force.”
“However, we won’t rest on our laurels and will look to see from the reports overall conclusions lessons learned and best practice to tighten further our crime recording procedures. It is important the public of north Wales have full confidence in the way we record, as well as investigate crime, and I am reassured that HMIC concur.”
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