On February 20 2023, David Sidwick, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset attended SI Bournemouth’s supper meeting and five members of SI Poole joined us. The two clubs had joined forces in advance and sent a comprehensive list of questions to David that would provide a focus for our discussion with him. He started by saying they were some of the most searching and insightful questions he had ever received. He then went on to say that he would answer them fully in writing in due course after the meeting as many of them required research and he had not had time to do them justice. He recapped on his progress since taking up his role more than a year ago sharing his six priority areas- cut crime and anti-social behaviour, make policing more visible and connected, fight violent crime and high harm, fight rural crime, put victims and communities first and make every penny count.
There was agreement that these are important and relevant but the recent events taking place in police forces around the country raised the priority of effective selection, training and monitoring of police behaviour especially in relation to dealing with women and girls. We appreciated David’s visit and await his full written responses to hopefully give us confidence that he has women and girls very much at the forefront of his mission.