Hello

Throughout September, Sussex has been part of a tool marking trial launched by the National Business Crime Centre.

Working in partnership with Sussex Police and Williams Trade Plumbing Supplies and aimed at local tradespeople, the initiative is working to combat the theft of power tools and other high value items from commercial vehicles.

Throughout the country, events were held for tradespeople to collect a SelectaDNA kit. The kits can mark up to 50 tools and the items are registered on the Secure Asset Register property database, making them easy to identify and, hopefully, to return to their rightful owner if they are stolen.

I am delighted to have been able to pay for 100 kits that will be given out across Sussex as part of this national initiative.

On Thursday, I visited the Williams Trade Plumbing site in Worthing where a tool marking event was taking place in partnership with Sussex Police.

We know that tools are a vital part of a tradesperson's livelihood and without them, they cannot perform their job. Tool marking acts as a deterrent to opportunistic thieves and can make it difficult for tools to be sold on.

It was great to see how the kits work and just how simple it can be to protect your equipment providing the best possible chance to recover them after a crime.

I also recently visited the Forensic Collision Investigation Unit based at Shoreham Police Station to see some of their new equipment funded by the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) fund.

You can read more about my visit and the cutting-edge technology the team are using in road collision investigations on my website.

Police & Crime Panel update

At today’s Police and Crime Panel meeting I presented two papers in response to Panel members’ earlier questions about Sussex Police’s recruitment strategy and the force’s response to digital and cyber crime.

The recruitment paper confirmed that Sussex will have recruited 40 officers in October, 88 in January next year and a further 88 in March.

This will mean that, after taking account of officers retiring or transferring, there will be an extra 163 police officers (funded by the Government’s Op Uplift) with another 20 funded by the local precept and nine for our Regional Organised Crime Unit.

The proportion of new recruits from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities was 11.3% last year and Sussex has one of the highest levels of female new recruits for forces nationally, welcoming 52.7% of new joiners in 2021.

Katy Bourne  OBE

Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner