Chailey, East Chiltington, Plumpton and St John — Neighbourhood Policing Team

Rural Crime Supporting rural communities affected by rural crime, including but not limited to; residential burglary, machinery theft, animal or livestock worrying, illegal poaching and criminal damage. Working with both partners and the Sussex Rural Crime Team to serve our rural communities, supporting initiatives such as country watch or rural watch to make rural communities feel safer by building long-lasting partnerships, responding to the community’s needs and providing an effective policing service. Policing our more rural areas to prevent and disrupt rural crime, and to identify those who use our more isolated areas of the district to conduct criminal activities, from fly tipping, damage to property and livestock worrying, to agricultural and equine theft.

•Officers continue to commit to rural patrols of our villages across the Lewes district; teams also continue to hold regular meetings for residents in which they can report and obtain first-hand updates on reported crimes, often joined by our Rural Crime Team for Sussex, most recently at Plumpton College for residents to speak directly to our RCT. •Funded by the PCC for Sussex, officers continue to distribute Selecta DNA marking kits to rural farms, and communities to help offer further protection to farming equipment, machinery and tools as part of our continued commitment to helping safeguard our more rural locations from crime - please get in touch if you would like a kit.

Set: 2026-06-01

Operation Downsway Our yearly campaign to address community concerns around road and driving related offences that fall into the fatal 5 driving offences. Including targeted patrols, education and enforcement activities across the district throughout the year, focused on targeting excess speed, distracted driving, as well as drink/drug driving. Continued work with partners, local authorities, including volunteer Community Speed Watch Groups to support activities and keep the roads of your towns and villages safe for all road users.

•As we head into the Summer months, residents can expect to see an increase in the number of dedicated patrols targeting driving related offences across our rural villages. •With officers deployed either on their own or joint deployments with volunteers from Community SpeedWatch Groups (CSW) to conduct vehicle speed checks in areas reported by local residents as having seen an increase in excess speeding or ASB driving.

Set: 2026-06-01