POLICE have carried out a week-long operation in Boscombe to warn people that criminality and antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated.

Teams of officers took part in the ‘surround a town’ operation in Boscombe west to crack down on anyone misbehaving in the area.

The operation ran from Wednesday November 16, until Tuesday November 22, and saw high-profile patrols between 9pm and midnight in an area of the town running from Hamilton Road to Palmerston Road and Churchill Gardens to Cecil Road.

Uniformed patrol officers from the safer neighbourhood teams joined traffic cops, dog handlers, ANPR and Dorset Road Safe officers for the operation.

Boscombe inspector Chris Weeks said the aim of the operation was to identify overt offences being committed in public and take positive action.

During the seven-day operation:

• 13 street cautions were handed out to working girls and nine kerb crawlers were arrested.

• One motorist had his car seized for driving with no insurance and two drivers were handed fixed penalty notices for driving with faulty lights.

• One person was arrested in connection with fraud offences and another was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods by selling property stolen during a burglary.

Insp Weeks said officers also gathered intelligence from the community as well as offering support to the area’s working girls.

He added: “I genuinely believe this style of high-visibility policing is what our communities want.

“Operations with a specific geographic focus allow us to deal with all offences in a positive style, having a significant impact.

“High-visibility policing will continue and I am confident in the short term will achieve similar results. All my officers are committed to reducing crime and disorder, we want to send a clear message that any form of criminality or antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated and request our communities continue to inform us of any concerns they have.”

• The operation follows the launch of the Backing Boscombe campaign.

Research revealed Boscombe is one of the most deprived areas in the South West and in response Boscombe Regeneration Partnership and Bournemouth 2026 launched Backing Boscombe to improve the town centre.