Guns, drugs and a spiralling murder rate

It is almost two years since Steve Green's Nottinghamshire police force was officially branded the worst in Britain.

In May 2003 the Nottinghamshire force became the first in more than a decade to fail the Home Office's test to see if the police are effective and efficient.

Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary said in a report: "If you lived, worked or visited Nottinghamshire, you were more likely to have a crime committed against you than anywhere in the country."

David Blakey, the inspector who wrote the report, issued Mr Green with a formal warning that his force could be the first to be taken over and run by Home Office appointees.

The official verdict said Nottinghamshire was the victim of a long history of poor performance, a drastic reform programme and a sudden rise in gun crime and murder.

In 2003, 82 out of the 103 detective constables and sergeants in Nottingham were working on murder cases.

Mr Green attempted to turn the situation around but repeatedly maintained that he was struggling to deal with a crime situation that was similar to that found across the whole of South Yorkshire but with 1,000 fewer officers.

Turf wars between drug gangs sent the murder rate and gun crime spiralling and Nottingham became the first city in the country to be patrolled on foot by armed officers.

In the latest official assessment, published nine months ago, Nottinghamshire lost its place at the bottom of the table to Cleveland police but the inspectors still rate it among the six poorest forces in the country on the basis of 16 areas of police work and management.

As a result the Nottinghamshire force is officially in "intensive care" with support from the Home Office's police standards unit under the direction of Paul Evans, the former police commissioner of Boston, Massachusetts.

There are already 30 murder investigations under way in the county and it was Mr Green's warning at the weekend that he would have to "farm out" the investigation of more murder inquiries that triggered the current row.

Nottinghamshire has had money under the ringfenced national Crime Fighting Fund to employ 319 extra police officers in the last four years and "mutual aid" arrangements mean that 20 detectives are on loan from other forces with a further 20 to 30 on the way.

The Home Office conceded Mr Green's argument yesterday that the way the Crime Fighting Fund operates encourages chief constables to use some of the extra officers on civilian paperwork duties instead of fighting crime.

Ministers say they will introduce greater flexibility as to who can be recruited with the extra cash.

But Mr Green has many local critics including John Clarke, the chairman of his police authority, who yesterday questioned whether his chief constable had taken the most appropriate action.

"The question has to be whether the resources are being properly used," he said.

He also said he was horrified by his chief constable's interview with the Sunday Telegraph. "It was the wrong move by Steve Green," said Mr Clarke.