Policing in Nottinghamshire is steadily improving, according to Home Secretary John Reid.

He went on patrol in Nottingham to see the challenges facing officers. In 2003 a government inspector described the force as the worst in the country.

Mr Reid told BBC Radio Nottingham: "In fairness to Nottingham Police, they have improved considerably."

He made no promises about extra funding - the police authority has called for its budget to be increased by £5m.

Mr Reid said there had been a 30% reduction in alcohol-related crime in the city centre.

"How have they done that? I think they've done that by getting people (police officers) out of cars and onto the streets.

"A few years ago everybody agreed that the police service was not anything near what it ought to be.

"It's getting a lot better than it was but it isn't perfect. Every human organisation has faults."

On the finance given to the force, the home secretary pointed out that Nottinghamshire had received more money when it was placed in so-called special measures.

'Visible and responsive'

"Nottingham have got about £4.7m more this year than they had last year. They've had and they're still getting some help in addition to that. They're getting more than they ever did before.

"We now have 194 more police in Nottinghamshire. We have 1,360 more police support staff and we've got 112 police community support officers. That doesn't count 361 special constables.

"The result of that is that we've now got 39 neighbourhood teams. They were visible, they were local and they were responsive.

"However, nothing is perfect and we still have a lot to do."