Crime continues to fall

Crimes of violence and criminal damage are both down with crime falling by 16 percent in the last three years.

Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Robin Smith said: “It has been a challenging year mostly due to the restructure of our policing services across the division, but I am pleased that the changes we had to implement to save costs have not directly affected our ability to keep the people in East Sussex safe and bring offenders to justice. In fact, in many cases these changes have actually improved our service to the public.

“For example, the introduction of three RITs (Response Investigation Teams) across the division has had a positive impact on reducing crime. RIT has allowed all secondary investigations to be streamlined and removed from front line response officers - freeing these officers up to continue to attend emergency and priority calls and get back out on the streets quicker. The knock-on effect of this is that victims of crime have been receiving a quicker and better service.

“In September 2011 response officers moved to five hubs across the division, including Battle, allowing them to be continually on the move as after booking on at their base station and receiving a short formal briefing from their supervisor, they are then able to get straight out into the community for the remainder of their shift - attending emergency and priority calls with less paperwork.

“We have driven down crime by 16% over the last three years and we will continue to bring it down, but this is not just policing performance - this is partnership performance. We are in partnership with a number of agencies and also the local community, without whose support we could not hope to have achieved such success.

“Sussex Police Authority vice chairman, Carole Shaves said: “We are pleased that East Sussex division has exceeded seven of the eight crime reduction and detection targets set by the authority. The officers and staff have continued to make our community a safe place in which to live. I congratulate them on their hard work and success which has brought about increased public confidence in the work of the Force.”