An army of children is being recruited by police to spy on their classmates.

Sussex Police is considering rolling out junior neighbourhood watch schemes across the county.

A scheme has already been set up in Crawley, where ten and 11-year-olds are taught to be vigilant and to identify crimes and suspects within their primary schools.

Pupils are being recruited for the posts by Neighbourhood Watch groups.

John Wright, chairman of Crawley Neighbourhood Watch, who came up with the idea for the scheme, said the youngsters were urged not to go out on patrol and the junior members' curtain-twitching skills were limited to being used for less than an hour a week each within their school grounds.

Following the success of the scheme in Crawley, police are now canvassing schools in Horsham about setting up their own schemes.