Councils are not being supported enough to tackle crime, the leader of Stevenage Borough Council has said.
Councillor Sharon Taylor said the central government must invest more in local authorities to tackle the causes of crime.
Official population and police data suggests the rate of crime per 100,000 people is higher in Stevenage than all other boroughs and districts in Hertfordshire.
In the year to July 2022, Hertfordshire Constabulary handled 10,503 crime reports in Stevenage - a rate of 11,921.1 per 100,000 people in the council area.
This compares with a rate of 11,634.9 per 100,000 in Watford, 9,320.1 in Welwyn Hatfield and 9,143.7 in Hertsmere.
Cllr Taylor said: "We really need a concerted approach to things like mental health to reduce crime in Stevenage.
"Crime and disorder we know is a priority for local public services who can begin providing solutions.
"For local government, the consistent cuts to funding means we are not able to do the work that we would like to do, such as investing in facilities for children and places where people can speak out about the difficulties which they are facing - whether that's drugs, debt or generally feeling low."
Councils throughout the country have raised fears cuts are having an impact on their ability to "safeguard" public services and people.
A report by London Councils - a local government association which includes authorities which border Hertfordshire, including Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Hillingdon - noted that central government funding to its members fell by 63 per cent in real terms between 2010 and 2020.
Cllr Taylor added: "We work very hard with the police in Stevenage to address crime.
"We are often asking them to take on a lot of responsibility - looking after mental health patients or searching for missing people - when they themselves have faced funding and staff cuts.
"That is a problem for neighbourhood policing."
The number of police officers UK-wide shrank from around 172,000 in 2010 to the 150,000 mark in 2015, according to Statista and the government's own figures.
Cllr Taylor made her comments to coincide with a visit to Stevenage by her Labour colleague and shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper.
In a Comet interview, Mrs Cooper said Labour would revive one of the campaign lines it used when Tony Blair was party leader: "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."
Mrs Cooper added: "Too often, people feel that if something goes wrong, then the police don't come because they are so overstretched.
"If the police do come, then nobody's arrested.
"Even if somebody is arrested, fewer people are charged and more are being let off.
"As a result, more victims are being let down."
According to official data, out of the crimes reported to Hertfordshire Constabulary in Stevenage between August 2021 and July 2022, police have been unable to secure a prosecution in 3,319 cases so far.
An additional 2,494 are listed as "complete" without a suspect ever having been identified.
At the start of October 2022, police were still investigating 814 cases from the same time period, while an extra 420 were in the courts system awaiting a resolution.
Nationwide, government records show there has been a decline in the number of arrests since 2008/2009 - from 1.43 million to 994,613 in 2012/13, then down to 667,188 in 2018/19.
But police recorded crime has risen rapidly since 2013/14 - from 4.03 million cases to 5.97 million in 2018/19, then to 6.3 million in 2021/22.
The Home Office has previously committed to schemes to boost the number of officers in police forces nationwide.
In July 2022, former Conservative home secretary Priti Patel visited the Hertfordshire Constabulary headquarters in Welwyn Garden City to celebrate a commitment to boost the number of UK officers by 20,000 by March 2023.
Ms Patel said at the time: "The total number of officers is now already at a 10-year high, with thousands more still on the way to make our streets safer.
"It means more officers patrolling the streets in Hertfordshire, bearing down on anti-social behaviour and tackling violent crime.
"With the £17 billion investment in policing, my commitment to recruiting, resourcing and training more officers means that police across the country are able to get the basics right in policing which is fighting and preventing crimes of all kinds."
Cllr Bernard Sarson is the executive member for community safety at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council.
He said: "We meet with most our community safety partners on a monthly basis, some of them even more frequently.
"The staff at Welwyn Hatfield council are doing a very good job at looking not just at crime but also prevention. It's different in every council area, but we know from experience that there are lots of things which councils can explore to tackle crime and its causes.
"One scheme - Positive Pathways - is doing particularly well.
"Children who are at risk of falling into cycles anti-social behaviour receive a one-to-one interview and are given targeted support."
Positive Pathways is a project joint-funded by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here