A significant increase in violent crime in Horsham and Worthing has fuelled a rise across West Sussex – bucking the national trend.
In Horsham, the number of violent crimes leading to injury was up 26.3% in the last financial year – bringing the total to just over 900 incidents,
a rise of 188. Most were in the town centre and related to the night-time economy.
In Worthing, there was a rise of 104 incidents, 10.9% more than the last year, bringing the total to just under 1,060.
The figures were put before members of West Sussex County Council’s scrutiny committee meeting yesterday morning.
Across the county, there were 535 more violent crimes which led to injury than in the previous year – an 8.1% increase, compared to a 3.1% decrease in the south-east and 3% decrease across England and Wales.
The figures for the other areas were: Chichester up 9% (+75), Mid Sussex up 5.9% (+50), Crawley up 4% (+59), Arun up 3.6% (+48), and Adur up 2.4% (+11).
Community safety manager Alex O’Keeffe said the numbers, from the Office of National Statistics, included domestic crime.
He added that the Horsham figures relating to serious violence had seen a “significant reduction” by September.
Chief Inspector Sarah Leadbeatter, lead for the policing response to serious violence, said there had been a significant increase in the Worthing figures in 2022/23.
While there were still issues, she told the committee that the things were now “heading in the right direction”.
Looking at the numbers for possession of a weapon, Mid Sussex saw an increase of 66.7% (up 42), in Arun it was 44.6% (up 58), in Horsham it was 42.4% (up 28), in Chichester it was 26.1% (up 23), in Worthing it was 23.4% (up 22), and in Crawley it was 12.2% (up 96).
There were no figures for Adur in 2022/23 but 17 incidents of possession were recorded by the end of March 2024.
Looking at the Horsham figures, Mr O’Keeffee said most of the incidents of violent crime took place in Denne ward, which includes the town centre, and were mainly related to the night-time economy.
In the rest of the district the rates were much lower.
He added: “In our county, every district is totally different to the next. There is a feeling sometimes of whack-a-mole – an issue will emerge in Horsham as one is going down in Worthing, which was the news last year.
“I think that’s a little bit where we’re at with Horsham at the moment. We’re really trying to get a handle and work together collectively around this emerging issue in Horsham.”
When it came to possession of weapons such as knives, he told the committee that most of those caught were children and young people.
He added: “Where there have been increases in serious violence – where there have been periods of youth crime in Horsham recently – there is the nefarious hand of adults in the background, playing a role in terms of exploitation.”
Rooting out people who exploit children is high on the priority list for Sussex Police and the Safer West Sussex Partnership, which includes councils, the fire services, the NHS and probation board.
Operation Ceremony, in Arun and Chichester, and Operation Jolt, in Southwick, are both aimed at protecting children and young people who are vulnerable to such abuse.
And the Crest Advisory Project – launched to better understand the drivers of serious violence in the county – heard from 5,500 children about their community safety and serious violence concerns.
Intervention work has been carried out in schools to help raise awareness among teachers, staff, parents and carers of the signs of exploitation.
The Home Office gave West Sussex £277,000 to help pay for such intervention projects.
The money has helped to set up 13 policing hotspots in Chichester, Crawley, Horsham and Worthing.
More than 1,700 hours of policing those hot-spots – over 1,000 hours in Crawley – saw drops in crime and antisocial behaviour across the board.
The only glitch was a 4% increase in violence causing injury in Crawley – though councillors were told that this was made up of a ‘very small number of incidents, low-level assaults’.
Crawley’s situation has not been helped by its population density, the levels of deprivation in some parts of the town, or its closeness to Gatwick Airport.
The meeting was told that the airport had ‘a significant impact’ on crime recording, particularly for possession of weapons – all of which were lumped into Crawley’s figures.
Looking at the work of the Safer West Sussex Partnership when it came to violent crime and exploitation, CI Leadbeatter said: “What we’ve learnt over the years is we can’t arrest a way out of these problems.
“This is absolutely around getting to understand what is causing this serious violence and how can we, as a partnership, work to try to disrupt and tackle and safeguard the most vulnerable.
“It’s around sharing information, intelligence and combining those resources.”
