The head of Scotland Yard has backed a call for police to prioritise tackling burglary and violence instead of recording incidents of misogyny.

Cressida Dick was speaking after Sara Thornton, the chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), said officers should not have to deal with reports of misogyny and it should not be a criminal offence, calling for them to focus instead on “core policing”.

Thornton told her organisation’s annual conference that while recording complaints of misogynist abuse may be desirable, police did not have the time or resources.

Her comments were supported on Friday by Dick, who said police services were stretched. “I think that what Sara was saying is that there are some things people care about very much, but it may not be the job of the police and is not appropriate for us to deal with,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“In terms of misogyny, we have hate crime in legislation currently. We have aggravating factors, racially, or race hate. We have specific statutes and offences, we don’t have those in relation to gender-related crime or misogyny and, in my view, we should be focusing on the things that the public tell me they care about most.”

In September, campaigners welcomed an “amazing” victory in the fight against sexist street harassment after the government announced a comprehensive review of hate crime legislation, which will consider whether to recognise misogyny as a hate crime.

The review follows a campaign led by Citizens UK and Nottingham Women’s Centre to tackle street harassment of women by recognising it as a misogynist hate crime. The group Nottingham Citizens prompted the local police force to implement the first trial of this policy in 2014.

Research this year revealed overwhelming public support after the two-year pilot scheme by Nottinghamshire police, which became the first force in the UK to record public harassment of women – such as groping, using explicit language or taking unwanted photographs – as well as more serious offences, such as assault, as misogyny hate crimes.