Dorset Police's Media Office deals with many thousands of media enquiries every year. It provides journalists with interviews and information regarding ongoing incidents, serious crime and policy issues. The team is also responsible for issuing dozens of proactive witness appeals and other news releases each month, to the media and online.
In addition to helping journalists, media Officers provide 24/7 on-call advice to officers, assistance for victims of crime and support to partner agencies.
Media enquiries
Please be aware that we log all media contact on a secure database, comprising the name and contact details of the enquirer, the questions asked and replies given. This is done for auditing and legally required disclosure purposes.
Media enquiries are taken by the Media Office between 7.30am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Outside these hours, enquiries can be made to the Force Command Centre via 101. Simple enquiries in relation to current incidents can be answered by the Force Command Centre if operational commitments allow. Enquiries about ongoing incidents that are operationally-critical, but more complex may be referred to the on-call media officer. Enquiries that are not relating to ongoing incidents and are not deemed operationally-critical will be passed to the team to respond during office hours.
The Media Office is only able to take enquiries from accredited journalists and other media representatives. We must justify our work and, therefore, we are unfortunately not resourced to assist students, amateur film-makers or any other enquiries that will not result in information being widely published.
Requests for statistics
If your enquiry is purely about statistics, you are advised to first research the matter on websites such as www.police.uk and, if the data is not already published, to submit your enquiry to the Freedom of Information team, who are better placed to research statistical information.
The Media Office will of course, provide a response to any questions arising from statistics and can advise the best way to frame your enquiry to get a quick response.
Follow-up enquires to social media posts
We also publish a wealth of information on social media. Where this appears on the Force's main accounts - Dorset Police on Facebook and @dorsetpolice on Twitter - we can assist with any follow-up enquiries. However, we do not have the capacity to respond to enquiries about posts on individual officer or team accounts.
For follow-up enquiries on these posts, please make contact using the same social media channel. When setting up a Force social media account, officers and staff agree to respond to any follow-up questions they generate, whether from the media or the public.
Media filming requests
We receive a large number of filming requests each week relating to both operational and non-operational matters. We are only able to support a fraction of the opportunities we are presented with.
We value openness, and recognise the role of documentaries in showing the public the realities of policing in action. However, we need to balance this against the requirement for confidentiality, possible disruption to operations arising from filming, the demand on operational policing and our capacity as an organisation to provide the necessary support, to ensure filming is carried out appropriately, legally and safely.
Facilitating filming with our officers and staff can involve significant resources and it is important that they can carry out their work with minimal disruption. Therefore, there must be a clear business case in terms of value to the public, and a policing purpose or need for the Force to agree to take part. Agreement will always be subject to current demand and resourcing. If access for filming is granted, Dorset Police may seek to be reimbursed for the time. These costs will be met by the production company or individual undertaking the filming.
To help us consider your request effectively, please complete the following form. A decision will be made as quickly as possible and you will be notified.
Media Office contacts
7.30am - 5.30pm Monday to Friday.
01202 223893
Enquiries received by email outside opening hours will be responded to when the office is next open.
Out-of-hours contacts
Via Force 101
(Command Centre)
Simple enquiries in relation to current incidents can be answered by the Force Command Centre if operational commitments allow. Enquiries about ongoing incidents that are operationally-critical, but more complex may be referred to the on-call media officer. Enquiries that are not relating to ongoing incidents and are not deemed operationally-critical will be passed to the team to respond during office hours.