ROTTINGDEANRANT: I had two police officers arrive on my doorstep after I reported someone riding a motorbike in the woods. Surely the majority of calls to police don’t need more than one officer?

PAUL SELLINGS (PS): Correct, the majority of calls can be dealt with by one officer. But it’s the violent minority that we’re concerned about.

When you go out on a call you never know what you’re going to face. In difficult cases our approach is to calm and control. One officer will engage and the other will consider conflict resolution and what force is required.

Violent people don’t make appointments and to deal with violence properly you need two officers.

What we would like to see is enough double crews to deal with those incidents. But the force is suggesting using single crews in the first instance because response times are not good.

If you have single officers responding to a call and they have to call for backup then you need a clear-up operation.

So not only is it dangerous we say it’s a false economy.

These kind of violent incidents are dealt with on a daily basis. It wouldn’t be unusual to have six in one evening in Brighton.

GEFFEN DAVIES, Moulsecoomb: How can the public have faith that the city will be kept safe by unhappy officers who could potentially ignore crimes?

PS: We won’t be ignoring crime. What we’re saying is that if you have a single crew, and you don’t think you can deal with a call-out safely, you should wait for colleagues.

Another point is that under the new conditions if an officer is seriously injured on duty they could be forced out of service.

So, if you’re going to a violent incident and you know you could get injured you might think twice about going in until it’s safe.

We’re fearful that if officers don’t know they’re going to be looked after they might be reticent to get involved.

JANICE DAVIES, Hollingbury: What do you think about drunk tanks? Should revellers be made to pay for their misbehaviour?

PS: If we have drunk tanks we need new legislation because if you detain someone it has to be at a police station. When people are arrested they have all sorts of rights, to speak to a solicitor, to a phone call.

All sorts of things have to be in place if we take away someone’s liberty. By the time we’ve done all that we might as well take them to the police station.

You can’t just throw drunk people on West Street into a room to sober up, you have to prove to a custody sergeant their arrest was necessary.

There are no safeguards in place and until that changes it’s unworkable and pie in the sky.

PETER LATHAM, via email: Should the Home Office pay the costs of the Balcombe operation?

PS: Fracking is a national issue which just so happens to take place in Sussex. I don’t see why Sussex should bear the brunt of a national issue.

I know Katy Bourne has asked for reimbursement of the £4 million operational costs and we urge the Government to satisfy this request.

If fracking goes ahead then the whole country could benefit but at the moment it’s just Sussex that’s having to pay the policing costs and that’s unfair.

NASIR KHAN, via email: Should Sussex Police get extra funding due to all the conferences, protests and events that take place in the county?

PS: Brighton is a popular destination for the likes of EDL, Pride, Smash EDO and we’re well used to dealing with it, it’s part of routine policing. But Sussex Police needs to be properly funded by the Government to deal with these operations.

We’re required to make £50 million savings by 2015. If we didn’t have to do that we would have been able to police Balcombe with the 300 officers we’ve lost.

We had to commit so many staff to Balcombe we had to work out how we were going to satisfy our responses to emergency calls, and the only way we could do it was by transferring neighbourhood policing teams to Balcombe. This meant the flow of intelligence by going out and meeting people stopped.

We believe PCSOs should be used as well as PCs. We police by consent. If the only experience people have of police is when they are arresting then we’re looking at a military state.

TERRY RENFORD, Worthing: In Balcombe were the police effectively acting as security guards for Cuadrilla despite the largely peaceful protest?

PS: I reject that. Cuadrilla was carrying out lawful activity. The rights and wrongs of fracking are not a matter for us. We are apolitical and are there to uphold the law and facilitate peaceful protest.

There were some decent-sized lorries up there and someone could have been seriously injured if they had gone under one.

All police will have different views but that’s academic. We have a duty to uphold the law.

We were getting accused by protesters of being too rough and too violent and using too much force. Then we were being accused of being too soft by others.

It’s a difficult balance to strike but if you’re being criticised on both sides you hope the balance is right.

Look at this way – no one was seriously injured during one month of protests, so that has to be a success.

The operation cost a lot of money but in order to keep the peace it was unavoidable.

We had to call in help from ten other forces and had to pay for the privilege.

ESMERALDA KLEIN, Hove: Is too much spent on corporate communications?

PS: This is a difficult question but what I would say is during the time that the number of corporate communications staff has gone from 12 to 26 we’ve lost 300 police officers. I think we’ve got to have as many officers on the streets as possible and if that’s at the expense of corporate communications then so be it.

PHIL SYKES, Hassocks: What is the rank and file view of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role? Is it working effectively or a lot of extra expense? Should someone from a nonpolicing background have so much authority?

PS: The PCC has been much more effective than police authorities. I think in Sussex it’s been particularly successful because Katy Bourne is a bright and challenging individual from a business background who is used to trimming the fat from an organisation.

I know she wants to lose as few police officers as possible and she’s looking at all sorts of different ways to do that.

I don’t think she needs to come from a police background. She’s made an astute appointment with Mark Streeter, who has massive police experience.

TRACY DUBOIS, Bevendean: If so many frontline cuts have been made why is there now a recruitment drive and overtime being offered? Doesn’t this defeat the point of the budget cuts?

PS: Overtime is being offered because we haven’t got enough police officers to fulfil the shifts we need. With the protests we’ve had to have officers coming in on their days off. We simply don’t have enough officers so we need overtime to fill the gap.

The recruitment of 80 new officers is to stand still and maintain numbers.

We’ve lost 300 officers and through natural wastage such as retirement and officers leaving, the force is shrinking. Some of our brightest talent is going elsewhere because they know there’s no opportunity for advancement.

CRAIG NASH, Hollingbury: What’s your favourite TV show about police?

PS: Hill Street Blues. It’s an American show about police officers on and off duty with all the stresses of the job.