Volunteer police officers in Dorset gave more than 28,000 hours of their time to tackling crime in the county in 2017.

Dorset Police’s Special Constables work on the front line with regular police officers to tackle a range of issues from incidents to routine patrols.

The 114 Dorset volunteers are unpaid and are only required to work 16 hours a month, however, some choose to give more of their time to combat important policing issues.

Last year, special constables performed a total of 28,638 hours service, 1000 more than in 2016.

This is the equivalent of 1193 full days and an average of 27 full days per officer. 33 per cent of the total hours was spent on responding to incidents, 16 per cent was spent on traffic and 8 per cent was spent on local policing.

Another eight per cent was spent on engagements and meetings while 16 per cent was spent on training.

The special constabulary made more than 120 arrests over the year.