SUSSEX Police should improve the way they investigate crimes, inspectors have said.

Officers and staff who investigate crimes are not always adequately trained or supervised, according to a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

Inspectors praised the force for the way it deals with anti-social behaviour and for saving money at a time of major budget cuts.

But inspector Zoe Billingham said she was “concerned” the force was “not investigating crime as effectively as it should be.”

She said: “Officers are not provided with sufficient information to deal with domestic abuse incidents as effectively as they should be.

“Next year we will be seeing how Sussex Police has responded to these assessments and we will be able to give it overall grades so that the public can see, at a glance, how the force is doing.”

The report says recent improvements in investigations have been made but were “limited by some misunderstanding of priorities among the workforce, insufficient allocation of resources and some examples of officers being responsible for investigations for which they are not trained or accredited.”

Inspectors also found there were “extensive delays” in investigating some serious crimes due to a lack of capacity to examine telephones and computers.

But Inspector Billingham said she was “impressed” with the way neighbourhood teams tackle anti-social behaviour.

She also praised the force’s “very good track record” of achieving savings and its work with Surrey Police to share costs.

There has been an overall reduction in crime of 3% over the past year in Sussex, a greater rate of reduction than the average for England and Wales, the report says.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Action has been taken to ensure officers who attend a domestic abuse incident have the relevant information from police systems so they are properly informed.

“The HMIC has evidenced our improvements in tackling domestic abuse, highlighting good investigations of high risk cases with good supervision, a successful prosecution without the victim being able to give evidence and assigning tasks to neighbourhood policing teams where the likelihood of repeat offending is high.”

Deputy chief constable Olivia Pinkney said she was delighted with the response that recognised “real strengths” that were down to the “hard work of officers, staff and volunteers.”