PIONEERING performance charts, drawn up independently using the Home Office's latest proposed techniques, have ranked North Yorkshire Police 19th out of the 42 police forces in England and Wales.

League tables by independent think-tank, Policy Exchange, have been created from new "spidergrams" - graphs which gauge performance on a number of different interlinked criteria.

The assessment of data from March 2001 to April 2002 puts the North Yorkshire force in the 19th spot compared to its previous ranking of 25th, based on last year's figures.

Humberside Police, which covers East Yorkshire, fell to 27th spot from its previous ranking of 14th.

West Yorkshire Police was ranked bottom of all 42 forces, based on this new research.

Charts were created for the police forces of England and Wales by comparing their scores on four domains - crime rates, operational effectiveness, economic efficiency and public reassurance.

The spidergram technique, which researchers claim highlights where performance on one area has come at the expense of another, is set to be introduced by the Home Office on a pilot basis in spring next year but will not be fully operational for two or three years.

Policy Exchange drew up its charts using the same data that the Home Office will be using from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service. It says the Home Office is considering adding other criteria, including "community-building", "working with criminal justice agencies" and "helping the public".

Forces were ranked in league tables, based on an overall performance score calculated from the four measures.

Among its conclusions, the think tank says its research shows that "quick-hit" initiatives, like the Government's Safer Streets drive, may distort police performance. Nearly all of the nine forces praised by the Government for having cut street crime in recent months performed badly in other areas.

It also concludes that:

* Large forces perform no better than small ones.

* There is a case for extra funding for forces covering densely-populated areas, particularly London and Greater Manchester, given that five out of the seven metropolitan forces were at or near the bottom of the league.

* The current method of using performance indicators to gauge performance bog forces down in red tape and that some results are of questionable value.

Updated: 08:55 Friday, September 20, 2002