A report from Kent Police lists 10 targets the force was meant to reach in the past year - of which it failed to meet five.

The figures also show a marked increase in areas such as burglary and public disorder.

But Kent Police have said the rise is due to changes in the way crime is recorded and its use of resources within the force.

The biggest increase between April last year and this March was in violent crime, which shot up by an average of 16% across Kent, despite a target of reducing it by 2%.

Cutting road deaths

The number of burglaries in people's homes increased by 1.4% overall, whereas the force had hoped to cut offences by 3%.

And although five areas saw a decrease in burglaries, Medway had a rise of almost 21%.

But the report does show success in certain areas, including cutting the number of road deaths and targeting class A drugs.

The force also stressed that crime rates improved in April this year.

Longer timescale

Kent Police's Chief Superintendant Chris Eyre said the force had tried to tackle violent crime and public disorder so that people felt safer.

"We actually saw an increase in the number of recorded offences simply because we were putting officers in to deal with community concerns and were discovering things that otherwise probably wouldn't have been reported," he said.

"It's far more complex than simply saying the statistics are worse."

He said Kent's residents needed to look at a longer timescale.

"In January 2003 there were 30 burglaries in the Thanet area - if you go back 10 years to 1993, there were over 290 in that same month."