ANTI-SOCIAL behaviour, domestic violence and a more visible and open police force are among the aims of Dorset’s new Chief Constable, Scott Chilton.

The new force leader force warns that one of his key obstacles to success will be finance and squeezing value out of his £148million budget to achieve his aims.

He was questioned for around an hour on Thursday afternoon by the county’s joint Police and Crime Panel.

Mr Chilton, who recently came to the county as Deputy Chief Constable after a career largely with the Hampshire force, says although Dorset is the ninth safest area in the county to live – he aims to improve that ranking.

He told the meeting that people’s perception of crime was often much worse than the reality and it would be up to all his staff to reassure residents.

In response to a question by Weymouth councillor Pete Barrow about tackling anti-social behaviour Mr Chilton said he would be working in partnership with other agencies on the issues: “It will remain a priority, but it cannot be done alone,” he said, adding that he would be making clear to his staff what was required of them to make communities feel safer, which included better communication and collaborative working.

On domestic violence, which he described as “a scourge on society” Mr Chilton said his officers would prefer to have known about the 130-170 incidents reported every week to the Dorset force well before they reached the stage where someone had to dial 999. He said the reported incidents were likely to be only a small proportion of actual offences.

“At the point it is reported to police it is often too late and we do rely on people, often family or friends, coming forward to tell us about it,” he said.

The new Chief Constable said the small number of people who caused the majority of criminal behaviour in Dorset council expect a “hostile reaction” from officers while at the same time the force would be doing what it could to ensure young people were deterred from what he described as “the ladder of criminality.”

Other questions included Dorset’s high levels of stop and search among non-white communities which Mr Chilton said needed to be “appropriate and non-discriminatory” and had to be intelligence led.

“We need to make sure there is no unconscious bias and if there is, to identify it,” he said.

In response to a question about setting target figures he said he was not usually in favour of the method as it tended to skew police behaviour, not always in a helpful way. He said it would be much better for his teams to concentrate on criminal behaviour and not have to worry about the statistics, or unnecessary bureaucracy.

Mr Chilton said he would commit to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s target of tackling rural crime, acknowledging that there was a belief in some parts of the county that it was an area which was not being given priority by the force.