Police in Sussex, Surrey, Thames Valley and Kent are to work together to target cross-county burglars as the clocks go back.

For the first time, officers from each force will work together during a three-week burglary campaign to catch offenders and educate residents to try to prevent them from becoming victims.

Officers regularly liaise with colleagues across the region about individual offenders or crime gangs but in the past ran operations at different times of the year, meaning that burglars could simply switch their attention to homes across the border during the campaigns.

This year the new approach means that one campaign will stretch from Chichester in the west to Margate in the east and as far north as Milton Keynes – an area of more than 5,600 square miles and more than six million people.