DORSET Police are continuing to call on the support of knitting enthusiasts across the county to create teddy bears for children in distress.

The teddies will be carried in patrol cars and used to comfort young children who are distressed or experiencing a traumatic event.

Police Constable Conroy, of Dorset Police, said: “Sadly we regularly attend incidents where children are really having a tough time – it could be a family argument or a loved one going missing. We do our best to build relationships with young people at incidents, but something like a teddy bear can be really useful in distracting them from what is going on around them”.

Inspector Justin Elliott, of Dorset Police, added: “This is a fantastic initiative and it’s great to see our officers going the extra mile to support some of the most vulnerable people we come into contact with. We hope that our community will be keen to support this initiative and we look forward to seeing all the police bears our knitters create.”

The knitting pattern can be downloaded from dorset.police.uk