A HUGE reduction in crime in the Rother District is being celebrated by Sussex Police.

The police have reported a drop of almost 25 per cent over the past three years, exceeding the 15 per cent target set by the Government Office of the South East in 2005.

The greatest areas of success centre around burglary, vehicle theft and theft from a person, with domestic burglary figures falling by 60 per cent.

Rother District Commander, Ch Insp Heather Keating said: "As we develop our work to tackle crime and continue to improve the public's confidence in policing and the criminal justice system we should acknowledge the excellent reductions in crime in Rother over the past three years."

These drops in crime in Rother amount to 1,041 fewer victims of crime in the 2007/08 performance year compared with 2003/04.

Ch Insp Keating went on to assure residents that the police would continue to push to reduce crime, aiming for a further drop of 10 per cent by 2011. One area the police have begun to focus on is policing at a local level.

Officers responsible for dealing with issues in a particular area are being separated into neighbourhood policing teams, which will deal with problem solving, and neighbourhood response teams which are the 24-hour response units.

Ch Insp Keating explained that this was primarily due to confusion among the public.

"Sussex Police had ended up with neighbourhood policing teams, who weren't actually the people specialising in the local engagement and problem solving that are the foundation of neighbourhood policing; those staff were called neighbourhood specialist teams." she said, "The overarching name covering both of these resources will be Neighbourhood Teams."

The police launched a number of campaigns at the end of 2008 to try and deal with burglary, but Ch Insp Keating emphasised that one of the most important factors in crime reduction was public awareness.

Delivering her end of year message she asked: "Please help us by being vigilant, do not be complacent about burglary."

She advised people to make sure their homes look occupied by using time switches for lighting and closing curtains and keeping homes secure.

She also said residents should report anything suspicious, avoid leaving items on display in cars and remember that empty boxes outside homes advertise valuables inside.