Police in Crawley will be monitored every time they stop suspected criminals in the street from today.

Officers are taking part in a national scheme involving seven forces and will record each incident when a suspect is stopped.

For the past year, police in Sussex have been noting details of every person they stop, including ethnicity, before issuing them with receipts .

From today six other forces across the country are following suit.

The move, the result of one of the recommendations of the inquiry into the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence, is an attempt to bolster public confidence in the police.

Under the old regime, police only had to keep a record when suspects were stopped and searched.

The new approach requires forces to note every time someone is stopped, even if they are not searched.

And in Crawley, the way in which officers record each stop will be under the national spotlight, their actions monitored by a sub-group of the inquiry.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: "The scheme gives us a better understanding of who we are stopping.

"It is important we gather information to indicate fairness in operational policing and highlight priority areas for closer scrutiny and decisive action.

"We hope it will help ethnic minority communities have greater confidence in the police."

In monitoring Crawley, the Home Office hopes to prevent officers becoming bogged down with paperwork.

A spokesman said: "The revised code introduces important new provisions for ethnic monitoring to ensure officers have the confidence to use the powers effectively to tackle crime, while promoting confidence in use of the powers among all members of the community.

"The recording of all stops as well as searches, as set out in Recommendation 61 of the Lawrence Inquiry Report, needs to be implemented in a way that is least inconvenient and time-consuming for both the police and individuals concerned."

Last year, 46 per cent more people were stopped in the county, compared to an increase across England and Wales of only four per cent.

This means the procedure was used 15,242 times in Sussex between 2001 and 2002.

Other police reforms introduced today include giving the Sussex force powers to appoint street wardens to work side-by-side with full-time officers.

Council leaders, voluntary groups and housing associations will be invited to put people forward.

Dubbed "Blunkett's bobbies", they will patrol crime hotspots and look out for loutish behaviour.

Their powers - such as issuing warnings to youths causing trouble - will be down to individual chief constables.