A POLICE chief has warned “you never know where a police officer is” as the force prepares to tackle a busy jubilee weekend.

Chief superintendent Mark Callaghan said officers had leave restricted as Dorset Police expected to see an increase in demand as members of the public celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

Mr Callaghan said officers would be “relentless” to those who commit crime and urged the public to behave over the bank holiday.

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“We have significant events taking place,” he said. “We have 500 road closures across the county and 350 street parties just in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

“From a policing perspective, we’ve increased our resources, officers have had annual leave restrictions put in place, some have had an increase into working hours to be able to cope with the demand we are expecting to have.

“Those that are going to commit crime, we won’t tolerate it and officers will be there to be able to respond to it.

“We are going to have officers out there, and those officers won’t always be in uniform, you never know where a police officer is.

“We’re being really proactive about preventing crime. If people come to Dorset and commit crime we will be relentless against all those that commit offences.

“Particularly violent crime, a lot of it happens when people are drunk, we’re asking people to think and look after your friends and make sure you behave sensibly, we won’t tolerate serious violence, we will nip it in the bud as early as we can.”

Mr Callaghan said the force would be prioritising incidents, and urged those reporting less serious crime to “bear with us” and promised they would get a response.

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He continued: “From all our investigations, from our CID teams through to our proactive teams, they are tackling high levels of crime.

“I have not got enough resources to go to every street party, so we are asking the public to be sensible, police your own street parties and the majority of the public will have a great weekend and won’t need any of the emergency services.

“I don’t really have any worries because we’re prepared. All our staff and frontline officers are amazing people, I’ve mentioned they’ve had their leave restricted and they’re here ready to do a great job.

“If I was concerned about anything, it’s an exceptional weekend, the weather is good, it’s the demand and being able to give everybody the service they want.

“We’re asking people to behave, think about your mates if you’re out in the town and look after each other, you don’t want to wake up in the cells and regret a night out.”