London, Mar. 6 : British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has admitted that over half of the country's population does not have confidence in the police.

In some parts of the country a little over a third of people have confidence in the police to fight crime properly.

A survey by the Home Office found confidence levels in the police''s ability to investigate cases of anti-social behavior was running at just 45 per cent across the country, reports The Telegraph.

In forces in Lincolnshire and South Wales, confidence levels had fallen to just 38 per cent. In Gwent and Humberside confidence levels were running at 39 per cent.

Smith said that this new confidence target was to be the sole way of judging the success of policing in England and Wales.

She said she wanted to raise the target to 55 per cent by 2011 and then 60 per cent by 2012.

The new targets had to be challenging to see a change in public confidence in the police.

She said: "The police should be answering to the public, not the Government. That is why I have scrapped all but one central target for the police - to raise public confidence." (ANI)