POLICE have come up with a startlingly simple weapon in their fight against crime.
And it's a plea for honesty among criminals.
Cynics may laugh - but this latest tactic is deadly serious.
West Yorkshire Police want criminals to "grass themselves up".
Chiefs claim coming clean will give offenders "a better quality of life". And they hope their conscience crusade will aid their clear-up statistics, too.
It means they can clear the slate and police can tick crimes off as being solved.
Suspects who are arrested and charged have always been given the opportunity to have other offences taken into consideration.
Acting Assistant Chief Constable Grahame Bullock said: "What we're doing is asking offenders to be honest about any other crimes.
"From a police point of view, we can narrow the gap between the number of offences recorded and the number for which an offender is brought to justice.
"This would also help to increase public reassurance and reduce the fear of crime."
He added: "For criminals it means they won't be continually looking over their shoulder and can look forward to an improved quality of life.
"For offenders who don't take this opportunity, rest assured that when we get the evidence we will be back."
Police in West Yorkshire are using new ways of working to identify those responsible for crime, such as Operation Converter.
This was launched last October to get the most out of forensic evidence recovered from scenes of crime.
It has contributed detections in vehicle crime and burglary.
Fingerprints, DNA, shoe-marks or photographs recovered during investigations into crimes such as burglary and car theft are whisked to the force's Scientific Support Unit in Wakefield by courier to undergo expert analysis.
They are swiftly processed and checked against data- bases to see if they are linked to a particular suspect.
As soon as the results are known, the scientific identifications - known as `hits' or `idents' - are sent back to police teams who specialise solely in investigating and making arrests on the basis of this evidence.
This has led to a major rise in detection rates and recovery of stolen property.
