Dorset Police chief says 'plans are in place' for rising demand

“We are not a place that will tolerate criminality. If you come here to commit crime, we will tackle and target you. We won’t take that in Dorset.

“If you come here purposely to commit crime, we will find you and we will deal with it through the criminal justice system."

These are the words of warning of Chief superintendent Heather Dixey.

She told the Echo that the force encourages visitors to the area, but asked that they respect local communities.

“It’s a nice place to visit, it’s a safe place, and the public should absolutely feel that they are able to come here and be safe,” she said.

Since the summer season began, the county force has seen a 25 per cent spike in 999 calls compared to the same period last year.

They receive an 'average of 372 calls a day'. 

“We always anticipate that we’re going to have a rise in calls over the summer, we’re a very busy tourist county,” Ch/supt Dixey said.

“It’s part of our seasonal planning. We always put resources in and enough staff to be able to cope with that demand.

“But this is quite a shift in the demand for us.”

Ch/Supt Dixey has described the measures the police have in place for dealing with anti-social behaviour through Bournemouth town centre and onto the beachfront.

The force works actively with partner agencies, including BCP Council, the Coastguard and the RNLI, who tackle ASB on the water, including trouble with jet skis.

“For anti-social behaviour and criminality, the beachfront itself is not a huge problem, it’s not rife in criminality, it’s a very safe place to be,” she said.

“For Bournemouth, we have what’s called Operation Fireglow, which is where my neighbourhood officers are deployed into Bournemouth Gardens.

“They will then do some of those operational patrols, to be there as a visible presence to the public, and as a deterrent to anybody who wants to commit any criminal offences.”

The force has a similar operation in Sandbanks, named Operation Sandman, which targets ASB, speeding and underage drinking.

“We look ahead at key dates, throughout the summer, so end of GCSEs, end of A Levels, A Level results.

“We work very closely with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council so their community support officers can go down and help there and try and make it a safe place.

“When we do get, unfortunately, some criminality and some anti-social behaviour, we deal with it.

“We do some education in the schools around being respectful of the area that they are visiting.”

Ch/Supt Dixey has reassured residents and visitors that the force is prepared for the busy summer season.

“The plans are in place, its well-rehearsed, year on year,” she said.

“I’m very comfortable we’ve got the resources in throughout the summer, but we’ve also identified peak weekends where we know we’re going to see an increase in visitors or an increase in internal visitors.

“So all those plans are in place.”

Last week, beach hut owners complained about gangs of youth “congregating and intimidating” people. 

They reported a group of up to 100 teens are causing “chaos and misery” due to “doing laughing gas, balloons, underage drinking and smashing bottles”. 

Some owners called for deterrents such as motion sensor lighting and CCTV cameras.