Victims of crime may soon be reporting incidents through Facebook-style interactive chat.

Sussex Police are set to launch the system as early as this summer.

It will be similar to the Facebook ‘chat box’.

Instead of dialling 999 and being referred to an operator in the call centre, people would just log online and report suspicious behaviour or a crime.

It is hoped the system will help the force, which now has many of its police officers on social networking sites such as Twitter, save money.

Sussex Police needs to save millions of pounds by 2015.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: “We would still have the police contact centre but people would also be able to talk live through the internet to people in the police contact centre.

“It would reduce the need for phones and the cost associated with this and is a way of the force moving forward.

“People bank online and buy insurance online so there is no reason they should not do this online too.

“Society has changed and the police need to catch up although we would still have phone lines.”

Sussex Police Authority discussed the information yesterday.

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