Lockdown crime figures show sweeping changes to life in Sussex

When Boris Johnson announced a full nationwide lockdown on March 24, eerily deserted streets, boarded-up shops and shuttered pubs quickly became the norm.
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Across Sussex and beyond, residents were limited to one form of exercise per day and an occasional trip to the supermarket as a treat.

Thousands of workers were furloughed or made redundant, cars sat on driveways and dozens of homeless people were rapidly housed in emergency accommodation.

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Everyday life changed beyond recognition in the blink of an eye, forcing Sussex Police – and the county’s criminals – to adapt.

Stock image of a would-be burglar. Picture: ShutterstockStock image of a would-be burglar. Picture: Shutterstock
Stock image of a would-be burglar. Picture: Shutterstock

How do you burgle a house if the owner never leaves? Who is there to mug on an empty road? Shoplifting is significantly more difficult when all the stores have their shutters down.

But total crime across Sussex increased by more than 17 per cent in the first three months of lockdown, rising from 12,127 in February to 14,521 by the end of May.

A meteoric rise in anti-social behaviour was the clear driver behind the increase, with reports of lockdown breaches falling under that category.

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According to Sussex Police figures, anti-social behaviour in the county trebled between February and May as an unseasonably warm spring brought visitors flocking to the coast.

Police said they received 2,723 reports of lockdown breaches during the week of the Easter bank holiday – more than the 2,116 reports of anti-social behaviour received for the whole of February.

By May, officers were receiving more than 6,100 reports of anti-social behaviour per month.

Superintendent Julia Pope said the force had looked to engage with the minority of people breaching lockdown rules, but the policing role in Sussex had never changed.

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“We are here to prevent, investigate and detect crime and to keep people safe, and this is evidenced in the on-going efforts of police officers and staff to proactively tackle crime, take criminals off the streets and provide support to victims that need our help,” she said.

“Our enforcement in relation to some crimes during the lockdown increased somewhat and we saw our proactive policing having a significant impact in relation to drug offences, county lines and violence.

“We were able to launch a new rural crime team during lockdown, which was made possible with the precept increase as acquired by Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne at that start of this financial year. The overall aim for the new team will be to crack down on unlawful behaviour in isolated communities and have a greater policing presence.

“During the height of the pandemic and even now, our policing stance when interacting with the public was always around our officers and staff using the 4Es approach of engaging, explaining and encouraging people to comply, with enforcement as a last resort.

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“I am pleased that the vast majority of the public who we interacted with complied with the government guidance and advice our officers and staff were providing. Where we were seeing the flouting of the rules, we deployed Public Liaison Teams to improve our understanding of why people were breaching the lockdown guidance to adapt our engagement style.

“We did see an increase in the reporting of anti-social behaviour, however a proportion of these can be attributed to people reporting those who were breaching the government guidance. A small minority of people were involved in anti-social and criminality in the weeks after the easing of the lockdown restrictions and the relevant police action was taken.

“We have a strong working relationship with partner agencies and together we can, and we will, use a wide variety of powers to tackle those who cause anti-social behaviour and disorder.

“This was only a small minority of people from our local communities and on the whole, I would like to recognise the sensible behaviour from the people of Sussex during the pandemic.

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“We are all in this together, we want to prevent a second spike in the infection, and so, above all, we urge people to follow the new guidance for their own safety and to prevent harm to others.”

When the UK entered lockdown in March, Sussex Police took steps to prepare for the uncertainty that was to follow.

Officers’ training was fast-tracked – 34 PCSOs were deployed early on March 30, and 61 police constable apprentices followed a few weeks later.

In early April, then-Chief Constable Giles York thanked 580 members of the public who signed up as police emergency volunteers and a database was created of retired officers who could be drafted in if required.

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Mr York said at the time: “We would also like to reassure the public that although we are putting these contingency plans in place, we are still in a position to respond to emergencies and carry out the normal day-to-day policing expected of us, to keep the public and our communities safe.”

The creation of the Sussex Resilience Forum (SRF) came next, as the emergency services joined with local authorities and other agencies, the military and the NHS to co-ordinate local response to the pandemic.

Chaired by Sussex Police, the SRF helped distribute PPE and vital supplies for vulnerable people and also helped in a herculean effort that saw almost all of the county’s homeless community placed into accommodation.

The product of these social shifts and pro-active policing was, with anti-social behaviour taken out of the equation, a reduction in crime across Sussex of around 20 per cent.

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Burglaries fell by around a third, shoplifting halved and theft from the person – i.e., non-violent muggings – was drastically reduced. In February, there were 122 reports of theft from the person in Sussex. Three months later, there were just 47.

Over the last four years, the police reported a ‘disturbing’ rise in vehicle thefts, increasing by 76 per cent between 2014 and 2019.

But with many vehicles stored safely on people’s drives, in garages or outside their homes during lockdown, vehicle crime plummeted by 59 per cent, dropping from 637 reports in February to 376 in May.

Conversely, as more people began to rely on bikes, bicycle thefts doubled from 124 to 231.

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It is no great surprise that when the vast majority of the population are ordered to stay in their homes, most crime figures will fall.

Unfortunately, the figures do not tell the whole story.

Lockdown placed victims of domestic abuse in an impossible situation, seemingly forced to stay at home with their abusers.

It could be assumed reports of domestic violence would have increased but, in fact, the opposite happened. In April, there were ten per cent fewer reports of domestic violence than the same time last year.

According to Sussex Police and domestic abuse charity Safe in Sussex, this was likely to be a result of victims being unable to report their abuse, rather than a drop in incidents.

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Both the police and support charities said they expected to see a ‘substantial increase’ in reports of domestic violence as lockdown eased, although May’s data may be too soon to tell the story.

In a bid to better protect victims of domestic abuse, police deployed ‘domestic abuse’ cars across the county to respond to incidents and a specialist team to set up video appointments for non-urgent cases.

Crime figures may paint a picture of life under lockdown in Sussex, but as the country moves into the next phase of recovery we can be sure the landscape will shift again.