THE area defined by police as the town centre stretches Preston New Road in the north to Grimshaw Retail Park in the south and from Montague Street in the west across to the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Eanam in the east.

Overall crime in this area fell from 3,027 incidents in 1998/99 to 2,481 in 1999/2000 then rose to 2,731 in 2000/01.

In Eastern Division, which covers Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, there were 2,593 offences of violence up to March 2001, compared to 1,905 for the previous year, an increase of 9.5 per cent.

However, all the figures show a massive drop on five years ago when in 1995/96 there were more than 11,000 incidents of burglary and car crime alone in the town centre and more than 3,500 offences of violence.

Police have set themselves demanding targets to reduce domestic burglaries by 35 per cent by March 2005 and vehicle crime by 30 per cent by the same date.

Police figures for October this year showed on average there were been seven burglaries a day and four incidents of vehicle crime in Blackburn town centre.

This has now dropped to an average of three burglaries a day and just one incident of vehicle crime a day following the launch of Operation Enforce.

Ironically the more successful the police are in dealing with crime the bigger the increase is likely to be in the crime figures, a paradox exacerbated by the constabulary's new practice of positive crime recording.

Last year Lancashire Constabulary led the way among forces in switching to positive crime recording, which actively encourages people to come forward and report crimes.

The bold move led to a rise of eight per cent in overall crime figures according to the latest statistics, though police say this will fall once they have a realistic picture of the true level of crime and are therefore better placed to tackle it.

Principal Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Central Lancashire, Tony Fowles, said care needed to be taken when looking at the figures.

He added: "Because of the change in recording practice although the figures may show an increase this year that may well flatten out next year or other forces may show an increase as well after they switch to the same system. It's very difficult to say whether this is a real increase or has been affected by the change. Figures are also affected by things like peoples' increasing willingness to come forward and report crimes to the police."

Chief Inspector Neil Smith, the man in charge of Operation Enforce, aimed at tackling increases in crime said: "Over the last few years we have increased our efforts to reduce crime in areas such as car crime and burglary and the success can be seen in the drop in the numbers of crimes in these areas. Operation Enforce is designed to tackle what is a slight increase in these crimes this year which we are not prepared to tolerate. However the levels of these crimes are nothing like they were five years ago."

He added: "The operation is really gaining momentum and what started out as a two-week blitz will now be extended for the foreseeable future.

"We have made a real difference to crime in the 'hot-spots' in Blackburn and our direct action has also had an impact on crime in other areas. The important thing now is to be able to sustain the reductions."

A total of 42 people were arrested as part of Operation Enforce.