Dorset Police news site

As 2025 draws to a close I want to reflect on the past year and acknowledge both the challenges we have faced as well as the good work that our 3,525 officers, staff and volunteers have completed in order to keep our county safe. 

This round-up covers 1 December 2024 to 30 November 2025 and demonstrates the demand we have faced and all we have collectively achieved to help protect our communities.

Our Contact Management team has answered 134,964 calls to 999, 144,452 calls to our 101 service, and dealt with 58,320 online crime and intelligence reports.

We’ve responded to 39,811 concerns for welfare and a further 9,255 incidents where a member of the public was experiencing a mental health crisis. We have continued to work with our partners, including local authorities, NHS trusts, and mental health agencies, to ensure those experiencing a mental health crisis receive the right care, at the right time from the most appropriate agency. This work continues and has reduced demand on our officers so they’re able to respond to core policing responsibilities, such as preventing and detecting crime.

While responding to 54,618 incidents and serving our communities, our officers and staff have driven our fleet of 457 vehicles over 3.1 million miles throughout the county. In order to keep those vehicles on the road, our vehicle technicians have carried out nearly 3,000 repairs.

Our pioneering Enhanced Video Response model, which was developed by the Force, continues to be extremely effective by providing victims the choice of speaking to an officer promptly via video, rather than waiting for an in-person visit. We are still seeing more than 80 per cent of victims choosing to speak to officers via this model, rather than through the more traditional routes.

Throughout our ‘Good Safe Summer’, we increased uniformed patrols from officers at key locations throughout the county, used dispersal powers to direct people away from the areas if they acted in an anti-social manner and continued to work closely with partner agencies to ensure that the whole county remains a safe place to live, work and visit.

The Force has also been carrying out high-visibility patrols in hotspots across the county, having identified where officers were needed most to tackle anti-social behaviour and violent crimes. We have already seen some impressive results, conducting over 10,000 hours of dedicated high-visibility patrols throughout the past 12 months. We are exceeding nationally in terms of our hotspot delivery which is a testament to the drive and commitment of our officers, staff and volunteers on the ground.

We have continued to protect vulnerable members of our community, finding 2,805 missing people and referring 37,435 adults and children to our Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs for police and partners to support them.

We recently conducted 16 Days of Activism, Here for Her Safety, renewing our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls and to encourage a societal shift making gender-based violence and harassment unacceptable.

Meanwhile, we continue to disrupt drug supply across the Southwest as part of Operation Scorpion, which is an ongoing regional operation, focusing on organised criminality and tackling those that cause our communities the most harm.

Our Roads Policing Team and family liaison officers have supported 368 people, who have been seriously injured on our road network and the families of 16 people who sadly lost their lives.

Our Road Safety Team detected over 77,000 offences where drivers were caught speeding or driving through red lights, going on to either receive an educational input on making better choices behind the wheel, receiving points and a fine or a trip to court. The highest speeding driver was clocked travelling at 125mph on the Bournemouth Spur Road, which was reckless and completely unacceptable.

As a police service, sadly we must also react to tragic events with professionalism and compassion. We demonstrated this across a range of major incidents and investigations, such as the callous murder of Joey Johnstone, which resulted in the two offenders being brought to justice and jailed earlier this month.

While our frontline colleagues are the most visible within our communities, our enabling services teams also deserve recognition. Their often unseen yet essential contribution underpins everything we do to protect victims and pursue offenders. Whether in finance, IT, administration, fleet, communications, people services, business change or other areas, they have all worked tirelessly to enable us to deliver policing in our communities.

Policing couldn’t function nearly as well without the support of our 191 special constables and police support volunteers, who have contributed over 26,000 hours throughout the year. Thank you to all our volunteers for dedicating your time to our policing family and for the valuable contribution you make to your communities.

Dorset is a police force where people care and where the values of public service, integrity and professionalism run deep.

We are one of the safest counties in the country, where crime continues to fall, which is a testament to the hard work and determination of everyone to be tough on crime, keep people safe and put our victims and witnesses first.

I would like to thank every officer, member of staff and volunteer for their commitment, ability to come together in times of crisis, work additional hours and support each other during trauma, to keep well and able to continue delivering exceptional policing for the people of Dorset.

Policing is a commitment that extends beyond the workplace. At times, our people may be absent from family events, quieter around their family after a difficult shift or find themselves socialising with friends less often. For these moments and more, I want to thank those who stand by them, offering patience, understanding and compassion.

I am pleased to say that we have welcomed new colleagues to the Force this year, including more police officers, police staff investigators and police community support officers, with more due to arrive in 2026, all of whom will undergo training before joining frontline teams.

Our police officer recruitment drive remains under way. If you would like to make a difference in our communities, you can find out more here: https://recruitment.dorset.police.uk/dorset-police-careers/dorset-police-officers/dorset-new-recruit-police-officers/?_gl=1*1lu0y49*_gcl_au*MTE4NTMxNjU5OC4xNzY0MzIxMjc5

Finally, I would like to wish our people and our communities a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Chief Constable Amanda Pearson
Dorset Police