Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner reveals key priorities for the county including 'making policing more visible'

Mrs Bourne, who has been in the role since its inauguration in 2012, was re-elected in May this year. She received 39 per cent of the total with 122,495 votes.

“This was always going to be the trickiest election for me because of the public mood,” the Sussex PCC told Sussex World.

"My party was not in a good place with the public. When the result came through, I was quite humbled.

"This one especially, when people put a cross through your name, you’ve got a greater responsibility.

“The team are firing on all cylinders. We are working on a police and crime plan for the next four years. That has to be delivered by the end of March next year.”

Mrs Bourne revealed her key priorities for Sussex.

“Priority one will be improving public trust and confidence, which has been tested in recent years,” she said.

"We will be making policing more visible. All the evidence on best way to tackles crimes in communities is visible trusted neighbourhood policing. There will be regular foot patrols and targeted crime hotspots.

“We will have good community meetings, clear public communication. This all helps to build public confidence back.

“I set up a Sussex safer business partnership. We meet twice a year, discussing pertinent issues and finding ways to tackle them. We set up Pegasus national scheme, tracking organised crime gangs. I continue with that work. Locally it all started here in Sussex.

“We will continue relentless disrupt of serious violence and organised crime, with greater enforcement activity.

“We aim to disrupt them using the road network.”

Mrs Bourne said roads policing ‘remains a key priority’.

She said she is ‘excited’ to establish a fatal five unit with a greater focus on targeting drivers who speed; have drugs / alcohol in their system; use their mobile phone; are using their mobile phone; or not wearing a seatbelt.

“We are working up the business plan for that,” she said. “I will sit down with the chief and see how we can deliver on this and target areas where there are specific problems.

“It’s about knowing the deterrent is there. It makes people think twice about transgressing.”

Mrs Bourne also pledged to make policing more visible in rural areas – to protect businesses and local residents.

She explained: “The rural crime team has been an enormous hit. Rural crime has actually gone down, which is great.”

The police and crime commissioner also pointed towards the statistic that Sussex Police are consistently among the best for answering 101 and 999 calls – something she hopes will continue.

“This has come from a lot of investment and hard work,” she said. “There have been some IT upgrades and we are getting really good results.”

The Sussex PCC acknowledged that some big challenges remain – including anti-social behaviour and youth crime across Sussex.

Mrs Bourne said: “It’s about making sure we use recourses efficiently. Hotspot policing in areas where crimes are prevalent.

“Unusually in Sussex, we deploy hotspot policing around retail areas. We are seeing more than a 60 per cent reduction in these crimes.

“We usually see 25 to 30 per cent reduction in crime with hotspot policing.

“I love hotspot policing. It’s really visible, makes the public feel safer and more confident that the police are amongst them – and seen to be dealing with crimes.

“We are hearing there is less government money. Nationally, millions of pounds worth of saving are needed.

“We are in the bottom quartile of forces for amount of money we get from government. We are ninth lowest in the country.

“Local tax payers pay the eighth lowest so we don’t have as much to spend.

“We have to be realistic about what we’ve got and police accordingly. It’s a challenge going forward. I’m making strong representations to government to change the funding formula because it isn’t fair. We are penalised here because we are seen as a rich council but we’re not.”

Mrs Bourne said she would like to see ‘more reporting of traditionally under reported crimes’.

She added: “We will help individuals and businesses affected by cyber crime. This is significant and fast growing.

"We will continue focus on violence against women and girls. Particularly in public and night time through proactive prevention work and enhanced support for those vulnerable victims.

"The final priority is around victims and witnesses in communities. I get money from Ministry of Justice. I would like to see improvement in standard of investigations and positive outcomes for victims. Not necessarily criminal conviction – but help them get life back on track.”

Mrs Bourne also addressed the fact that the Conservatives suffered heavy losses across East and West Sussex.

Asked if this will impact how she works as Tory politician, she said: “We have a whole rainbow colour across Sussex now – Lib Dems, Green and Labour. It’s very diverse and that reflects how we are across Sussex.

“Once politics of the campaign are out of the way, I park that. I get on with doing the job. District and borough councils haven’t always been of the same political persuasion.

“We work closely with them and massively support them.

“We all want the same thing. We have different ways of getting there. As long as our eyes on the goal and what we want to achieve we can do that and work together.

"We can be grown up about it because that’s what people want to see. We will work together for the greater good. It was not a great year for Conservatives but I was re-elected.

"I do keep that as a reminder that public have put faith in me.”