A CHIEF constable has hit out at criticism of the way his force records crime - describing it as "a nonsense".

A report by the Audit Commission released today marked Cleveland Police down from excellent to good when it came to the statistics.

The force's chief constable, Sean Price, said the results were not an accurate reflection of his officers' performance.

"If we recorded a burglary and it turned out to be a theft, we reclassified that, but they are saying it should have been left as it was. It's a nonsense, which is why we were unhappy about it," he said.

An Audit Commission spokesperson said of Cleveland Police's results: "The force is maintaining good corporate arrangements to ensure data quality standards are maintained. However, it cannot be complacent. Its performance on crime recording has deteriorated from last year. The authority and force need to regain its focus to improve standards."

But Mr Price said the matter had been debated at length with the Audit Commission. In the end, he said, both parties had to "agree to disagree".

He said the commission had published the results despite recognising there was an "admin issue", and only a week after HM Chief inspector of cconstabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan handed his interim report on the police service to the Home Secretary.

A former chief constable of Northern Ireland Police, he has been tasked with making policing more effective.

His review is expected to make recommendations on how to reduce bureaucracy in the force, and promoting better business practices.

Mr Price said: "We are being told to cut down on time being spent looking at minor bureaucracies, yet this bureaucracy shows us to be deteriorating."

Steve Bundred, chief executive of the Audit Commission, said: "Data quality may sound bureaucratic, but it is about the police listening to the public, recording correctly the information they give and acting on it."

Cleveland is among 26 per cent nationally that have been downgraded on their previous year's rating for crime recording.

The data is a measurement of recording crime as described by a witness or victim, based on nine categories of crime. An excellent rating represents 95 per cent or more compliant, good is 90 to 94 per cent, and fair is 89 per cent and below.

All the other forces in the region equalled their 2005-06 crime recording rating, with Durham Police improving from good to excellent.