IT would be churlish to criticise the police for spending money on PR - the press office is an essential conduit for information, and crime prevention is usually money well spent.

However, nationally, police publicity and marketing expenditure has risen by 13 per cent in the past two years at a time when budgets are under intense strain.

Britain's police forces were asked to disclose their expenditure under the Freedom of Information Act.

Those that did spent £30.2m between them - enough to put hundreds of extra bobbies on the beat.

Forces have stepped up marketing initiatives because the Home Office measures their performance against "public perception" of crime.

As a result, the force that gets its message across most effectively - and assuages public fears - does well.

Interestingly, improvements in perceptions are not always matched by reductions in actual recorded crime - although the Home Office National Reassurance Policing programme has shown that it does boost public confidence in the police.

Is this right when hard-up forces such as North Yorkshire are forced to ask parish councils to help cover petrol costs in remote areas? Or when Durham has to ask for a £500,000 one-off payment to avoid the threat of capping?

Figures for Scotland released earlier this month show that since 2003, police failed to find the culprits behind one in every five crimes reported.

And with many more crimes never reported, that could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Improving perceptions is about making people feel safer. Surely everyone agrees that the best way to do that would be to solve more crime.