A POLICE authority chairman last night urged critics of a beleaguered force to give credit for a record drop in burglaries.

Domestic break-ins at Middlesbrough are below 3,000 for the first time since local records began. They fell to 2,912 in the 12 months to the end of March; a seven per cent reduction on the previous year.

Councillor Ken Walker, chairman of the Cleveland Police authority, said: "I think it is particularly significant and commendable that this has been achieved at a time when the force has been subject to so much pressure and, I have to say, ill-informed comment.

"I hope that those who have been so quick to criticise will now be equally keen to give credit. And I hope that the public will recognise that some of the more nonsensical claims which have been made about the performance and morale of the force are totally disproved by the facts.''