ESSEX Police is the least successful force in the country for charging people with crimes.

Figures released yesterday revealed there were 120,658 crimes recorded by the force between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017.

These are crimes which are both reported to, and accepted as, crimes by the force.

Somebody was charged or summonsed to court on 9,582 occasions.

This means Essex Police charged a suspect less than eight per cent of the time, the lowest percentage of any force in England and Wales.

Police forces often claim charging people is not always the best way to deal with suspects, pointing to their use of cautions, community resolutions or where prosecutions are not in the public interest.

These account for another seven per cent of the crimes recorded last year by the force.

This leaves more than 100,000 crimes - about 85 per cent of them - where nobody was charged or dealt with in another way.

23 per cent of the time there were “evidential difficulties”.

38 per cent of the time no suspect was identified.

And for 22 per cent, or 26,174 recorded crimes, the force was unable to say what had happened once the crime was recorded.

Some victims may be disappointed with the figures especially considering the increase in CCTV and improvements in forensic techniques.

However the force is facing several challenges including reducing numbers of police officers, staff and PCSOs.

In 2010 there were 6,211 full time employees at Essex Police.

As of March 31 this year the number had dropped to 4,840.

This includes about 800 police officers.

The number of part time employees is also understood to have fallen significantly while the population of Essex has been rising.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: "Offenders can be dealt with in a number of ways and taking them to court is only one of the options available to us.

"We will take the most appropriate course of action depending upon the circumstances of each individual case, including the seriousness of the crime they have committed.

"This may include charging or summonsing an individual, or using an alternative such as a caution or resolving the issue by way of community resolution or penalty notice.

"There will be cases where an investigation result in action being taken against offenders due to evidential difficulties. These include incidents where suspects cannot be identified or where the victim does not support action being taken against them.

"Unfortunately there will be times where there may be limited investigative opportunities to identify suspects, for example if there are no forensic opportunities, CCTV or witnesses."

The office for the police and crime commissioner was contacted for a comment but did not respond.