Sussex Police have set up a "flying squad" to swoop on major crimes anywhere in the county, 24 hours a day.
Officers will be on call and can be at the crime scene in under two hours.
Local police will go first but if the crime proves to be a serious one, the new Major Crime Branch will take over.
A team of officers and support staff will be provided within six hours.
Three suites are being set up at police stations in Brighton, Worthing and Horsham and they will be open next year.
A fourth, in Eastbourne, will be up and running in 2004.
They will house the latest crime computers, linked to other forces.
A spokesman said Sussex Police believed the new squad would lighten the workload of local staff and help meet the increasingly complex demands of major investigations.
It cost £2 million to bring about the conviction of Roy Whiting for the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, one of 51 incidents in the county during 2000 which were classified as major crime.
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