Priorities and direction
Sussex Police serves East and West Sussex and the city of Brighton & Hove - an area of 3,780km. A resident population of 1.65m grows significantly with millions of visitors, holidaymakers, students, seasonal workers and the 46 million passengers who travel through Gatwick Airport annually.
Officers, staff and volunteers work together to deliver the strategic priorities set within the Sussex Police and Crime Plan and the Sussex Police priorities which are:
- Protect our communities.
- Catch criminals.
- Deliver an outstanding service.
Urban areas, with their day and night-time economies, and more sparsely populated rural areas present contrasting policing challenges. In Sussex, as is being seen nationally, crime continues to become increasingly complex, requiring more and often specialist resource, for example in the case of cyber-enabled crime.
Already a low-cost force, over the period 2012/13 to 2022/23 the force has made savings of nearly £94m. Sussex Police continues to systematically transform its services, with recent precept investment (the amount people pay for policing through their council tax) supporting:
- The introduction of a Digital Investigation Support Unit to assist investigation and intelligence teams to make the most out of digital opportunities.
- The enhancement of data analytics to enable better management of information and intelligence to target activity to catch criminals.
- The development of new dashboards, putting the best possible information in the hands of frontline officers and staff, saving them time and helping to target resources in the most efficient and effective way.
- Sustained joint investment in outside enquiry team detectives to support historic investigations and enable the Major Crime Team to progress unsolved homicides.
- Development in our anti-corruption capability to deliver the highest possible professional standards.
- Improvements to the quality of investigations, seeking to achieve the best possible outcomes for victims and bring more offenders to justice, involving a significant increase of police officers in local policing.
- Enhanced community engagement opportunities, through the introduction of a new piece of software, which will help officers engage with neighbourhoods about their priorities and provide updates on local activity.
Over the past three years, the force has seen increases in the number of police officers and staff serving local communities, enabled by the government’s uplift programme and successive precept investment. New police officer and PCSO recruits as well as specialist staff have begun to make a significant impact – strengthening local divisions, improving public contact, and modernising policing.
The uplift also enabled a more visible presence and better engagement with communities (both physically and online), which has proved vital given the challenges of the past year.
Recruitment during 2022/23
We are planning to recruit over 350 new officers between April 2022 and March 2023; ensuring we achieve both our precept and government-funded positions, as well as replacing those who leave or retire.
By the end of March 2023, we will have a net growth of 183 officer posts – an increase of 163 from the Government-funded uplift (20,000 new officers in England and Wales) and 20 officer posts funded through the precept rise. This growth is on top of the 122 increase in officer posts we achieved in the 2021/2022 financial year and 179 officer posts in the 2020/2021 financial year.