NEW Dorset police and crime commissioner David Sidwick has tackled what he says are ‘myths’ about him.

He has also laid out his plans for the next three years which includes making police officers more visible in local communities and tackling organised crime.

“We are going to fight violent crime and high harm; we are going to tackle organised gangs and be tough on drugs and tackle those high harm incidents which are more hidden such as child abuse, domestic abuse and modern slavery,” he said.

He also promised rural crime being given a higher priority, which he said would lead to a doubling of the rural crime team this year, and may include the introduction of rural special constables.

He said he would also make better use of police resources and hoped to promote Neighbourhood Watch which, he said, had been shown to reduce crimes in areas where it operates by 20 per cemt.

In his first address to the county-wide police and crime panel he said he felt he ought to first tackle mis-information about him and his campaign to take on the job.

“I wasn’t funded by anybody, apart from myself and my wife going back to work for the NHS…there was no huge pot of money given to me by the Conservative Party. It doesn’t work like that, and the same with election funding – I had to go out an raise every single penny by making cases to people,” he said in his opening words to the police and crime panel, made up mainly of Dorset and BCP councillors.

He said he had deliberately capped donations to his election campaign to ensure there could be no claims that he would be in thrall to anyone because of a particularly large donation.

Mr Sidwick said there was also no Conservative whip on him: “There is no mechanism where I can be told what to do,” he said.

He said within 10 minutes of being elected he had taken an oath to work for all of the people of Dorset which included respecting the operational independence of the Chief Constable.

“I am not working for the government, I am not working for the Police. I work for only one group of people which is the people of Dorset,” he said.

He said his mission would be to cut crime and anti-social behaviour and make the county the safest in the UK.

The commissioner said this was based on the values of justice, fairness, community and respect.

He says he will now create a new police and crime plan which will go out to consultation during the summer with it expected to be approved in the autumn. He said he aimed to have the plan last longer than the three years he has in office, reduced by one year on the normal term because of the pandemic which saw former commissioner Martyn Underhill serve an extra year.