Name/Title
Sussex Constabulary Disposition document 1st January 1968Entry/Object ID
2381Description
Beige Manilla folder containing (slightly larger than standard A4 size) typewritten document titled "Sussex Constabulary Force Disposition as at 1st January 1968"Use
Document detailing the complete deposition of Sussex Constabulary at its formationContext
On the 1st January 1968 the new Sussex Constabulary came into being following the amalgamation of the county police forces of East and West Sussex Constabulary, together with the borough forces of Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. This merger had long been planned with numerous working groups having been established previously to decide on the organisation of the new police force.
This document details all of the officers in Sussex Constabulary at its formation, including rank, where they are stationed and which departments they are posted too. Of particular interest is that it shows both their new Sussex Constabulary warrant numbers and their old ones from their old forces.
All of the old Sussex forces used 3 figure warrant numbers which were re-issued. As none of these forces had more than 999 officers, 3 figure numbering worked well. However the new force was to have approximately 2500 officers, which meant normal 3 figure numbering would not work as before. The force decided against using a divisional numbering system and a combination of letters and numbers was introduced instead, allowing officers to retain the same number throughout their career. Warrant numbers were made up of 3 elements, an "A" for a male officer and a "B" for a female officer, followed by the first letter of their surname, followed by a 3 figure number from 1 to 999. Thus a male officer with the surname "Smith" might be for instance "AS123" or a female called Jones, "BJ123". Each combination of letters and numbers was intended to be unique and not re-issued.
The interesting thing is that it was never planned to display these warrant numbers on the uniforms of the new Sussex Constabulary officers. Documents produced detailing the organisation of the force in 1967 make this very clear. However some months into 1968, the Home Office complained that officers should have numbers displayed to make them identifiable and more accountable. Consequently the allocated numbers were added to all constable's and sergeant's uniforms. When this was done the "A" or "B", signifying the sex of the officer was left off. This system of numbering continued within Sussex Police until the late 1980s when numbers were running out. So the "A" and "B", sex letters were changed to "C" and "D", respectively, and this time, were included on the uniforms.
In 2018 Sussex Police changed the system to gender neutral warrant numbers for all new recruits, starting with "EA001". Once 999 numbers were issued the prefix was to be changed to "EB", then "EC" etc.