'We won’t rest on our laurels' - Sussex Police chief not getting complacent as figures reveal drop in some crime

Figures were shared by Chief Constable Jo Shiner during a performance and accountability meeting with Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne on Friday (January 19).

Since December 31 2019, burglary has fallen by 33 per cent, theft from person – eg pick-pocketing – by 25 per cent, and total neighbourhood crime by 23 per cent.

The Chief Constable said: “We are really pleased to see those reductions. However, we won’t rest on our laurels.

“Of course we will continue to work hard on prevention.

“As we see more officers join us, that enables us to not only have greater visibility – which is a deterrent – but it also enables us to be able to target some of those areas [that need it].

“And to be able to fully staff some of those teams – such as the specialist enforcement unit, the tactical enforcement unit, our rural crime teams – where we are then able to make a real difference in terms of driving down some of those crimes that really matter to our community.”

The government has set Sussex Police a headcount target of 3,205 officers in 2024/25.

If the force keeps its numbers up to target, it will receive a grant of £9.1m.

By March 31, there will be 3,245 officers on the force, with 3,163 being full-time equivalent.

There are currently 2,116 staff on the books, with enough budget for 2,380. The number is set to rise to 2,140 by March 31.

There are 258 PCSOs on the force – though that intake will rise in February – with enough budget for 292.

Chief Constable Shiner described the force’s recruitment plans as ‘effective and realistic’ but recognised the nationwide problem when it came to attracting PCSOs.

Under the government’s Police Uplift Programme, Sussex has to recruit 429 officers in the coming year.

A dent in those figures has already been made with 67 ‘very high calibre’ officers being enrolled last week.

She added: “It’s really important to me as the chief that not only do we recruit the numbers but that those people are of a quality that we would want to serve our communities in Sussex.”

Another area which has seen improvement was the 999/101 call answering times.

Up to January 16, 98.1 per cent of emergency calls were answered inside ten seconds – a result which looks likely to place Sussex Police high on the league table of forces.

The average waiting time to answer a 101 non-emergency call was one minute 48 seconds, with an ‘incredibly low’ rate of people abandoning those calls – 4.6 per cent.

In November and December 2023, 101 calls took an average four minutes and 13 seconds to answer.

Even those times were a massive improvement on recent years when waits of 20 minutes were usual and almost two-thirds of people were abandoning their calls.

Mr Bourne said: “For me, when people talk about visibility, they don’t just mean seeing a police officer walking the beat.

“The visibility for them is also that first contact because that’s when they come into contact with the police, sometimes for the first time in their lives.”