David Westwood [left] and Colin Inglis amid the force's troubles

In June 2004, the force was severely criticised by the Bichard Inquiry for failing to keep proper records on Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Sir Michael Bichard pointed to "serious failings" in Humberside's management.

His report led the then Home Secretary David Blunkett to call for Chief Constable David Westwood's suspension.

But the Humberside Police Authority refused to follow orders.

Chief suspended

Its chairman Colin Inglis said the chief constable should be allowed to stay on to rectify the failings identified in the Bichard report.

The unprecedented stand-off between a police authority and a home secretary led Mr Blunkett to use powers under the Police Reform Act 2002 to order a chief constable's suspension for the first time.

In September 2004, the suspension was lifted after Mr Westwood agreed to retire a year early the following March.

More publicity followed in September this year when the new chief constable Tim Hollis announced he had set out a comprehensive plan to improve the way the force handles calls from the public, saying it was currently "not getting it right".

Mr Hollis announced he had set up a new Incident Handling Improvement Team to attempt to solve the problems.

'Highest workload'

Following publication of the performance tables on Thursday, Humberside Police defended itself, saying its officers had one of the highest workloads in the country.

The force said it was now heading in the right direction with an improving status in the majority of the key performance areas, although it conceded it was starting from a low base.

Humberside had seen a 12% drop in recorded crime, 25% reduction in domestic burglary, 36% reduction for robbery, 19% drop in vehicle crime and a 6% drop in violent crime.

Mr Hollis said: "The force recognises the need to increase detections and reduce crime further and bring even more offenders to justice.

"I also recognise the tension between high-visibility patrolling and the need to detect more crime and that's something the force is working on."