SUSSEX Police has seen its conviction rate and the severity of sentences for hate crimes increase to lift them up to among the top third of forces in the country.
Sussex Police is now ranked 14 out of 42 forces for ?hate crime? conviction rate for the first quarter of 2015/16 with an 86.2% against a target of 85%.
?Hate crime? sentence uplift, where sentences are increased according to the severity of racial or religious aggravation, has also improved across the South East CPS area.
The force’s hate crime sergeant Peter Allan said 25 defendants appeared in 24 ?racist? ?hate crime? cases in Sussex during June with 14 cases concluding with all defendants pleading guilty and a further seven cases achieving a conviction after trial.
Sgt Allan described the statistics as “great news” but said there was still more to do.
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