§ Mr. TyrieTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers, patrol officers and community beat officers there were in West Sussex in 1997; and how many there are today. [158597]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe information in the table has been provided by the Chief Constable of the Sussex police. I understand that of the five divisions that police the county of West Sussex two of them also police parts of the County of East Sussex, the number of officers available to police West Sussex will therefore vary from week to week.
I am also told that because of changes to computer systems in December 1999 the force is unable to provide historical information about the distribution of officers between the divisions of the Sussex police. However, the force has been able to provide an estimate for 1997, which is based on the current distribution of police officers to divisions, and these are in the table.
Number of police officers in West Sussex area of the Sussex police 31 March 1997 31 March 2001 Total number of police officers 916 883 Response (patrol) officers 456 442 Community beat officers 181 174