FORGET modern policing theories - ordinary rain has been hailed as the best weapon against crime.

Academics in Southampton have officially declared Britain's weather system as the most influential factor on crime rates.

Criminologist and former police officer Professor Frank Leishman will make his inaugural lecture at Southampton Institute tonight about weather being the forgotten factor in crime rates.

Entitled Elemental My Dear Watson? The Weather, Crime and Criminology, the presentation will examine the effects climatic conditions can have on crime figures.

Reviewing research and evidence on the effect of weather, the lecture will focus on how the weather has contributed to solving both real and fictional crimes.

Professor Leishman, who served as a police officer in Edinburgh for ten years before beginning his academic career, said: "I am looking forward to sharing some thoughts on the links between crime and weather.

"Weather has long been admitted as a factor, even when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was writing the Sherlock Holmes series in Victorian times, and it is interesting to consider whether the weather may affect our lives more than we know."

The professor's views were echoed by Hampshire police. Southampton police spokeswoman Lucy Dibdin said: "It is a noticeable trend. We often do credit PC Rain for a temporary reduction in overall crime figures."

Professor Leishman's lecture will take place in the Sir James Matthews lecture theatre at Southampton Institute, East Park Terrace at 6.30pm tonight. Contact Lyndsay Bouette on 023 8031 9038.