Serious violent crime was up and housebreaking in Dundee rose sharply. However, crimes of indecency and car crimes were down.

Tayside Police set itself 18 performance targets and met eight of them, although some of the failures were by narrow margins.

Chief Constable John Vine, writing in his annual report, said he had nothing but praise for his officers and staff.

He said, “They have attained a high standard of performance and helped to deliver safer communities for all.”

His report was presented today to members of the Tayside Joint Police Board, which comprises councillors from the three local authorities which helped fund the force to the tune of £74 million.

Mr Vine defended the targets his force had set themselves and missed, saying they were ambitious deliberately while some other forces had no targets whatsoever. He said he believed they acted as a spur to his officers.

New targets have now been set for next year, which include solving 51% of all crimes, reducing violent crime by 5%, solving 32% of all housebreakings and 25% of motor crimes.

Mr Vine said the strategy launched three years ago was to put more emphasis on front line uniformed policemen and to get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy which tied officers up.

He said they had taken on a the fixed penalty notice pilot scheme in Scotland despite the G8 preparations, since he was convinced it would cut down paperwork and so far 607 tickets had been served for anti-social behaviour, adding, “This has helped officers tackle more serious crime.”

A breakdown of the figures shows that crimes of violence went up from 580 to 620, including rises in the number of attempted murders, serious assaults and robberies.

Mr Vine described this as “disappointing”. However, he said such crimes were only a very small proportion of the total.

The annual report also showed that crimes of indecency fell from 495 to 432, including drops in the number of rapes and attempted rapes.

He said that there had been a rise in the supply of class A drugs, but added Tayside was not alone amongst the forces in experiencing this problem, which also fuelled what he termed “acquisitive crime” — stealing to maintain a habit.

Referring to all crime, he said he was pleased with a very high clear-up rate, and forecast that by the end of the year they would be at the lower end of all forces’ recorded offences.

As far as violent crime was concerned, he conceded that had risen from the previous year and pledged that the force would redouble its efforts.

Although housebreaking had gone up last year, over the past three years the number of incidents had fallen dramatically.

The annual report also listed incidents which are formally classed as offences rather than crimes.

These included 4307 petty assaults, 5812 cases of breach of the peace and 320 incidents of racially aggravated harassment or conduct.

Overall, non-motoring offences dropped from 13,997 to 13,299.

A total of 44,502 motoring offences were detected, up slightly from 44,185 the year before, with speeding still a significant factor.

Mr Vine said, “It is still apparent that too many drivers are failing to recognise the inherent dangers of driving in excess of the relevant speed limit.”

Regarding speed cameras, Mr Vine said they had been often accused by special interest groups of failing to use specialist road policing officers, relying on cameras instead.

He said, “Speed cameras are not an income-generating facility, but are there to prevent injuries and for some time we have published the location of all of our mobile cameras.

“Over the past year, we have also prosecuted 4748 cases for not wearing seat belts and 1071 for mobile phone use while driving.”

In conclusion, Mr Vine noted that while the year had been dominated by G8, he did not believe the police performance had been affected.

Board convener Colin Young, said the content of the report was superb, not only in presentation but by the facts and figures.

“Most people in Tayside would be delighted that the force was performing at this level,” he said.