Sussex Police dip into reserves to hire 200 more officers

Sussex Police Force is going to use the recent increase in council tax precept and £17m of reserves to hire the additional officer over the next four years to strengthen community policing but not necessarily to put more officers 'on the beat'.

It isn't known how many, if any, will be allocated specifically to Brighton & Hove.

At one point the Sussex force was tasked to save £76m when austerity measures were introduced in 2010 and it was feared that up to 500 officer posts could be lost. Officers numbers in Sussex will still be lower than 2010 even after the additional recruitment.