WYCOMBE’S top policeman says it is his priority to catch criminals after a ‘bewildering message’ by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary for England and Wales.

Tom Winsor told the Royal United Services Institute on Monday that crime prevention, not catching criminals, was "the primary purpose of policing”.

Focusing on crime hotspots and would-be offenders would give "the biggest bang for the public's buck", Mr Winsor said, but this was being made difficult due to the "primitive technology” available to officers.

Superintendent Gilbert Houalla believes it was a slip of the tongue to suggest police officers should not focus on bringing criminals to justice, which will remain a key aim of the Wycombe LPA under his leadership.

Supt Houalla said: “Tom Windsor made a good point which I absolutely agree with him on, and that’s the need to deploy better ICT systems to identify crime hot spots, as in the long term it will save money, resources and be a more effective at reducing crime.

“Where I urge caution is around sending out a message which is likely to bewilder my community, confuse my officers and empower criminals, when he talks about the police’s responsibility to catching criminals.

“I want to make it absolutely crystal clear to everybody in the Wycombe LPA that my priorities are to reduce crime and catch criminals – every single one of them.

“Any message that detracts from that is not the sort of message I want to send out to my officers or to my community - because people will look puzzled if anyone hinted the role of an officer is not to catch criminals.

“That’s not what Tom Windsor wanted to say but that’s what may have come across.”