Six new community safety officers are to patrol the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole areas in the coming weeks.

BCP Council is investing £240,000 on the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) officers to add to the current eight officers.

The officers have delegated powers which include the authority to require the name and address for those acting anti-socially or begging and the power to remove alcohol from those under 18 and confiscate it from those acting anti-socially. In addition, they will work closely alongside the council’s services commissioned to tackle rough sleeping and substance misuse, engaging with the appropriate individuals and sign-posting or making appropriate referrals to support agencies.

Cllr May Haines, portfolio holder for Community Safety commented,  “We are dedicated in our approach to tackling street-based anti-social behaviour and I am delighted that we are investing in six additional CSAS officers to work across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to make our communities feel safer as part of our Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign.

“We want to ensure that Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole is a safe place to live in, work in and visit and in addition to the enhanced CCTV camera rollout that the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset recently allocated us funding for, these new officers, once trained, will help to bring a real sense of pride to our area.”