A police standards boss says the statistics on officers investigated for sexual offences are a “positive thing” which highlights changes to the force’s culture.

Sussex Police Detective Chief Inspector Jon Robeson said the force was working hard to root out perpetrators of violence against women and girls with public confidence in officers at an “all-time low”.

The comments come as The Argus reveals that nearly 100 officers were investigated for allegations of domestic abuse or sexual assault in the past five years.

Force bosses said they were working hard to educate officers and create a “call-it-out culture” encouraging them to report colleagues if necessary.

DCI Robeson, from the professional standards department, said: “I know it looks like a bad thing but I think it’s a positive thing. We will probably see more negative headlines because of the hearings we have to hold but that is a process that we need to go through to root out this misconduct.

The Argus: Sussex Police HQSussex Police HQ (Image: Andrew Gardner/The Argus)

“Trust and confidence in policing is at an all-time low and that’s why we’re working so hard to try and counter that. We’re driving these cultural changes to make sure we are holding officers that aren’t fit for policing to account.

“We accept the impact of some of these cases and the impact they have both nationally and in Sussex on the trust and confidence of our communities. We expect the highest personal and professional standards from our officers and any allegations are robustly identified and rooted out. We don’t want these people in our organisation.”

A Freedom of Information request by The Argus revealed that 95 officers were investigated for domestic abuse or sexual assault from 2017 to 2022.

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The Argus fought to have the figures published after the initial request was delayed for more than 30 days.

The statistics showed that over a quarter of these allegations were made in 2022 alone. Figures rose dramatically from 2021 in the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.

Couzens pleaded guilty to kidnap, rape and murder, and was jailed for life in September 2021.

Superintendent Adele Tucknott, Sussex Police’s lead for violence against women and girls, said: “After Sarah Everard, there wasn’t a police officer in the country that wasn’t shocked by that.

“We know that a number of high-profile cases have eroded trust and confidence in policing. We have got a job to do to restore that.

“We know we have areas we need to improve in and we have been pushing domestic abuse as one of these for a long time.

“We are going to continue the way and rightly prioritise and are optimistic that we have the right people to be a beacon for this across policing.”

As part of their work, Sussex Police have included a number of initiatives including a new sexual harassment policy, a monthly scrutiny panel and an award-winning local resolution team working with domestic abuse survivors.