THE Kent Police Authority has expressed its disappointment with the results of this year's Home Office police performance assessment.

Kent Police's services are all graded fair, good or excellent in the report, which compares the 43 police forces in England and Wales in seven key areas of policing.

However, Chief Constable Mike Fuller recognises the need to improve its performance in reducing crime and citizen focus, which are rated fair compared with other forces, but deteriorating compared with Kent's performance last year.

He said: "We know there are areas where we need to improve and we’re already taking steps to do this.

"Although crime is relatively low in the county, fear of crime remains too high. We need to work more with communities, especially minority groups, to make sure that we increase public confidence."

Ann Barnes, chair of KPA said: "The Authority is naturally disappointed with these results because we want to see Kent as a top performing force.

"We want the people of Kent to get the best possible service. However, we have not received any poor scores and this is very good news for the taxpayer and shows that we are getting value for money."

There were some positive results for Kent Police. The force was graded excellent in the way it uses resources and good in providing assistance.

The Home Office also rates Kent as good and improving in the investigating crime category.

Mr Fuller added: "This is a remarkable achievement considering the unprecedented demands of the past year, including February’s Securitas robbery, the heightened terrorism alerts and 12 murders."

"The combination of major crimes and security alerts placed enormous pressure on our resources."