A low car theft charge rate has prompted fresh calls for action.
Jess Brown-Fuller, Liberal Democrat MP for Chichester, is demanding a fully resourced return to neighbourhood policing in Sussex after figures revealed the scale of unsolved vehicle crime in the county.
According to Home Office data analysed by the Liberal Democrats, Sussex Police recorded 1,902 vehicle thefts in 2025.
Suspects were charged in just 1.47 per cent of cases, with no suspect identified in more than 80 per cent.
Ms Brown-Fuller said: "I want to be clear: our police officers in Chichester are working hard, but they are being let down by a government that has failed to resource them properly.
"Across Sussex people rely on their cars to get to work, take their kids to school and get themselves to the doctors and essential services, and it's a scandal that so many are having their vehicles taken with so little chance of the culprit being caught."
She argued the figures are not a reflection of police effort, but of a force stretched too thin to properly investigate these crimes.
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Many parts of the Chichester constituency are rural, with residents heavily reliant on vehicles for work, education, and healthcare.
Ms Brown-Fuller said: "That's not down to a lack of effort from local officers, it's down to years of underfunding and the loss of neighbourhood policing that gave communities a visible, trusted police presence.
"Fewer officers on our streets means less time to investigate crimes like car theft, and less deterrent for the criminals carrying them out.
"I'll keep pushing ministers to properly fund neighbourhood policing in Sussex, because our officers and our communities deserve better than this."
The Liberal Democrats are calling for greater investment in neighbourhood policing to ensure officers have the resources and time to respond to and investigate thefts.
They have also proposed the creation of a specialist unit within the National Crime Agency to focus on organised vehicle theft.
The unit would draw on data from automatic number plate recognition cameras, insurance databases, and intelligence from police and border agencies to disrupt the organised crime networks behind many of the offences.
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