'Have your say' on the amount you pay for policing in Dorset
Dorset Police are encouraging residents to fill out their ‘Precept Survey’
Dorset Police is inviting the county's residents to have their say on a proposed rise in the policing part of our council tax next year.
We're being encouraged to fill out their ‘Policing Precept Survey’ before January 31st.
In 2022, the survey had 1,662 respondents, with 77% of them agreeing that Dorset Police requires additional funding and 67% supporting the proposal to raise the precept.
With that funding, Dorset became the 6th safest place to live in the UK, up from last year’s ranking of 10th.
Now, Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner, David Sidwick is determined to reach the coveted top spot.
Mr Sidwick is asking for the people of Dorset to pay an extra £1.25 a month. He said:
“The last thing that I would want is to increase anyone’s taxes at this time, unfortunately, the inflation means that I am going to have to ask.”
“With that £1.25 a month I can continue driving down anti-social behaviour, driving down the drugs issue, making sure we have a rural crime team and also make certain we have an extra 15 officers.”
Dorset Police is the second worst-funded police force in the country.
The precept contributes over half of the money Dorset Police needs to operate meanwhile other forces in the country only 21% of their funding comes from the precept.
Mr Sidwick said:
“We really need this £15 a year to make sure we continue to deliver for the people of Dorset.”
Last year, the precept was used to help launch three campaigns such as Operation Viper and Operation Scorpion, which look at the drug issue in the southwest, as well as Operation Relentless, which aims to mitigate anti-social behaviour in Dorset.
Mr Sidwick told us these campaigns were successful as burglary went down 17%, anti-social behaviour incidents were reduced by 10%, rural crime was cut by 43% and organised crime groups were slashed by 60%.