SUSSEX Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne says  “it is difficult to know” if increased funding will mean a fall in crime.

Mrs Bourne was speaking at a meeting of the Sussex Police and Crime Panel to discuss plans to raise the 2019/20 police precept by £24 a year for the average Band D household in an effort to increase the numbers of police officers and PCSOs. The rise was agreed.

She responded to a question posed by Hastings Borough Councillor Colin Fitzgerald, who asked if the extra funding would see crime numbers fall.

Cllr Fitzgerald said: “The largest intake of police officers for over ten years is to be welcomed and I am pleased you feel the rise will meet the expectation of taxpayers.

“On that point, one of the expectations of taxpayers is that they will get bang for their buck and ultimately with regard to policing that will mean a reduction in crime.

“So one of the things I’m looking for today is an assurance to our taxpayers from you that  this extra spending and these extra police will lead to a reduction in crime.”

Mrs Bourne said: “I think it is very difficult to determine whether you are going to see a reduction in crime when local authorities and other partners the police work with and depend on quite heavily are looking at reductions in certain areas.

“My expectation is that with some of the, particularly local authority, decrease in spending that there is going to be an increase in demand on policing actually.”

As an example, Mrs Bourne spoke of a study which looked at how many incidents had taken place where both Sussex Police and the ambulance service had been called to a scene but where ambulance services were unavailable or arrived too late.

According to Mrs Bourne, Sussex Police logged 241 such incidents over a two-month period, of which 145 were not attended by the ambulance service.

From this it is estimated that 3.7 Sussex Police officers are used purely to transport patients when ambulance services are not able to attend, Mrs Bourne said.

She said: “That is just a small area. We have seen reduction in youth services and we know the impact that is having on policing, particularly around county lines with criminals deliberately targeting younger and more vulnerable members of society.

“I think [reducing crime] is a great aspiration to have and if it was only that binary and simple it would be great. But we can’t labour under the illusion, where everybody is reducing and cutting, that with this investment in policing we are going to see crime dropping.”