TAXPAYERS could be told to pay an extra £5 or more per year for policing.

The county’s police and crime commissioner, Katy Bourne, wants to increase the police's share of council tax by 3.4 per cent.

That would amount to £5 per year for Band D households, and would mean Mrs Bourne had raised the precept by £10.49 for those households since taking office in 2012.

There has been a public consultation on the proposal but there will be no referendum, in line with new Government rules

Mrs Bourne said the increase was needed to help police investigate increasingly complex digital evidence and to tackle growing numbers of sexual and domestic abuse reports.

Budget papers highlight one recent case in which more than a million indecent images were found on one device and show police rely on outsourcing for digital forensics, which is not cost-effective.

Late last year the Government raised to £5 the threshold by which the precept could be increased without calling a referendum in the forces which levy the lowest amounts.

Sussex has the fourth lowest Band D council tax precept in England and spends the fifth lowest per person of all police forces in England and Wales.

The Sussex's Police and Crime Panel will discuss Mrs Bourne's plans on Friday and can ask her to revise them.

Brad Watson, chairman of the Police and Crime Panel, said it would likely take note of the fact that Sussex Police was one of the lowest funded forces

“The panel has agreed where there have been increases in the past that it should be targeted towards specific services,” he added.

And both the panel and the PCC’s office keep an eye on where the money is going, he said.

The PCC’s office said that during a public consultation running until January 9, 65.8 per cent of 3,738 Sussex respondents supported paying more for policing.

It added that level of support was "similar to previous years and this year there has been a significant increase in the number of respondents".