Gun crime has been slashed by more than half and knife-related incidents are falling, according to Brent's top police officer.

But Borough Commander Mark Toland still believes the fear of crime is stopping terrified residents leaving their homes.

He said: "Crime has never been at this level - it's fantastic.

"But the perception is totally different to the reality.

"We have had 1,000 fewer crimes than last year and are getting better at catching offenders, but people still don't go out because they think they are going to get robbed."

Speaking to the Observer after the release of the borough's latest crime statistics, Mr Toland said: "I want to send out the simple message to both young and old people that crime is falling."

According to the crime statistics, collated by the Metropolitan Police, robbery in Brent has gone down by 16 per cent on last year, with 145 fewer recorded crimes and residential burglary has gone down by just over 14 per cent, with 160 fewer crimes.

There has also been a big reduction in the number of car crimes, with 25 per cent fewer incidents recorded.

Gun crime is down 57 per cent, with police logging 28 offences between April and September, as opposed to 66 last year. Thirty-three guns have also been recovered.

Mr Toland believes this has a lot to do with the arrests of gang members and drug dealers in Harlesden High Street and on the South Kilburn Estate.

He said: "We have caught and charged a lot of troublemakers as a result of operations such as Saunton and it has made a great difference."

The statistics also show that knife crime has been slashed by 15 per cent, with 40 crimes taking place since April.

Officers in charge of Operation Blunt - the Met-wide clampdown on knives - no longer consider theborough an 'area of serious concern'.

Mr Toland added: "We are now on the second tier of boroughs in terms of the amount of outside help we get from units such as the Territorial Support Group and this is a real compliment."

Mr Toland also laid out his plans for the future, saying there would be an increase in the number of officers patrolling the borough's transport networks.

"We are going to put a full-time Safer Transport Team into the Wembley Central area, which will look after the bus stops and train stations.

"And we have invested £20,000 in new state-of-the-art CCTV equipment, which allows us to identify criminals with greater ease."

Councillor Hayley Matthews, responsible for crime prevention, said the police and local authority were not complacent about the positive figures.