Police must root out racism wherever it appears, especially if it's in their own force.

That's why we applaud wholeheartedly the attitude of Brighton's new police chief, Chief Superintendent Doug Rattray.

He has launched an internal investigation into who posted a message on the force intranet after a police officer put up his house for sale.

The message next to one from Chief Inspector Kul Verna asked whether his home was the one above the corner shop.

Some officers felt the reference to corner shops where people live above them, mainly run by Asians, was harmless enough and intended to be humorous.

Maybe so, but it's a short step from there to sneering and even downright racist comments based purely on an officer's ethnic origin.

It comes too short a time after the Metropolitan Police were said in a report to be institutionally racist.

The then Sussex chief constable, Paul Whitehouse, said he would do all he could to purge his force of racism.

Mr Rattray's investigation may seem overzealous and harsh to many officers.

But the police have to make sure they are completely non-racist so that they can deal fairly with race crime in Sussex and gain the trust of ethnic minorities.