We are constantly told that crime in Britain is on a downward path.

That might be true overall, but there are some worrying statistics buried beneath the figures.

Crime in Oxfordshire, for example, is said to have dropped by 8.1 per cent, with house burglary down by 19.7 per cent and muggings down by 20.1 per cent.

But in Oxford, there have been significant increases in the number of burglaries and robberies.

Police try to paint a rosy picture by saying that initiatives like Operation Backlash, which has netted more than 40 suspects in the past week, will help reduce the figures.

The problem is that operations of this sort, while very welcome, tend to be shortlived.

Police pick a particular crime and particular group of criminals to target for a period, then move on.

Criminals get to know that after a short time, the police will pull back and for them, it will soon be business as usual.

What we need is a sustained attack on all fronts against our criminal fraternity permanently.

To do that, our police need to be given more resources and to be freed from the mountain of red tape they have to wade through every time they make an arrest.

Then maybe they can get more people onto the streets to start reducing robberies, burglaries and other serious crime for good.