HOME owners can get advice today about keeping their home safe and secure this Christmas.

As part of the Countdown to Christmas campaign this weekend officers will be meeting residents, offering leaflets and giving out marker pens so residents can mark their belongings. There will be three all day meeting points which anyone can attend.

The first will be at the Albert Road junction, outside Beales in Bournemouth.

The second is on Wimborne Road, outside Waitrose in Winton and the third is on Christchurch Road, outside McDonalds in Boscombe.

Dorset Police will be using a range of tactics in a bid to reduce burglaries across Dorset over Christmas and New Year – under the banner of Operation Castle.

The force say burglary crime traditionally increases in Dorset during the festive period.