1.2 In extending this approach to more sensitive issues such as drug taking or racial disharmony, what problems could be anticipated in generating the information flows required to build a partnership? Police services throughout the UK have undergone a major change in approach to their task in recent years. One obvious sign of this change is that the police is now known as a ‘service’ rather than a ‘force’, recognising the need to integrate more obviously into the society it serves rather than simply enforce law.

Sussex Police, in common with others, is facing the issue of dealing with rising levels of crime but with limited resources. Many issues in society today cannot be solved simply by putting more police officers on the streets, even if this were possible to do. Problems of drug dealing or racial unrest require co-operation between society at large, community leaders and other social agencies. The Sussex Police Way, launched in 1999, set out five policing principles to support the purpose of Sussex Police, which is ‘to reduce the number of incidents which require an intervention by Sussex Police and/or from other social agencies’. The aim is to address the root cause of problems and to break the vicious cycle of responding to emergency calls in a wholly reactive manner. Principle 4 states: ‘We will emphasise and develop the partnership approach. This will involve a wide range of official and voluntary agencies as well as the general public.’