Crime has dropped in Sussex but police officers fear spending cuts could undo their good work.

New Home Office figures show 97,134 crimes were recorded across the county in 2010/11 – a 4% drop on the year before.

Of those crimes 30% were solved, compared to a national average of 28%.

The largest drop was in criminal damage where the 18,661 crimes reported were 11% down on the year before. But in the same period drug offences rose by 6% to 4,864 and there was a 3% increase in sexual offences, to 1,467.

Sussex outperformed the national average, where crime dropped overall by 1%.

Other crimes where the levels fell included car crime which was down 6% to 9,208, robbery which fell 4% to 898, violence against the person where there was a 1% drop to 19,608 and fraud and forgery which decreased 9% to 3,749.

Sussex Police highlighted a 6% drop in burglaries, to 9,557, meaning Sussex now has the fifth lowest burglary rate in the country.

Senior officers also pointed to the force’s work on tackling antisocial behaviour, with reports falling 9% compared to a national average drop of 8%.

Bob Brown, of Sussex Police Federation, warned of the effects of the £50 million cuts being made by the force.

He said: “I am pleased that recorded crime tends to fall, in general, across Sussex. But I will still have my concerns if the cutbacks proposed are introduced.

“Next time there could be an increase.”

Sussex Police deputy chief constable Giles York said: “It must be remembered that behind the pages of figures and statistics are real people and in Sussex there are nearly 4,000 fewer victims of crime this year.

“These real people are also telling us that they are increasingly confident in our policing with nearly two-thirds believing that we are doing a good or even excellent job.

“Now we must concentrate on maintaining this improvement against a background of unprecedented change in policing.”