[5] On 1 April 1974, this force took over some areas (mainly Christchurch and its hinterland) from Hampshire Constabulary and acquired its present name of Dorset Police.

Whilst here, Pearson was the spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police's tactic of officers being able to knock moped thieves off their bikes.

[23] Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland (as per Section 137 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994).

CID is split into numerous sub-departments, which include: Child Protect Investigation, Intelligence Directorate, Scientific Support.

The unit comprises one inspector, one sergeant, 13 constables and 22 dogs, including general purpose German Shepherds and more specialist breeds.

Police stations open to the public are located at Blandford, Bournemouth Central, Bridport, Gillingham, Poole, Sherborne, Swanage and Weymouth.

Stations without a public front desk are Boscombe, Dorchester, Ferndown, Shaftesbury, Sturminster Newton, Verwood, Wareham, Wimborne and Winton.

Dorset Police's officer rank structure, with epaulette design, is as follows (from highest to lowest):In 2012, Dorset Police officers moved from blue shirts to black wicking tops (PCSOs wear blue wicking tops).

[62] Some officers carry the Conducted Energy Device (CED) Axon TASER, a non-lethal electroshock weapon used to incapacitate targets via shocks of 50,000 volts.

[65] As a result, there are now seven workshops available across the three counties, and Dorset manages and maintains approximately 500 vehicles as part of 'Alliance Fleet Services'.

This is judged as follows: In its latest PEEL inspections, Dorset Police were rated as follows (ungraded means that it wasn't given a score, not that it was necessarily un-markable):[72][73] In December 2014, Dorset Police was criticised during a review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) for the way they investigated offences, with a backlog of cases in the Safeguarding Referral Unit.

[74] In November 2022, a report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) was published about Dorset Police and seven other forces into their standards of vetting.

It uncovered that due to poor vetting standards there could be 'hundreds, if not thousands, of corrupt police officers serving in England and Wales'.

The plans were publicly criticised by all the involved forces, stating that it would lead to poor quality service and a reduction in local policing.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) defines a strategic alliance as: "An agreement between two or more forces to pursue a set of agreed objectives, while retaining separate identities."

A strategic alliance was agreed to in March 2015, covering over 30 administrative and operational business areas (almost 40% of the total activity of the two forces).

In each business area, there is a single team and management structure made up from people from both organisations, to work on behalf of both forces.

the strategic alliance project is on track to achieve the initial target of £12 million of combined annual savings by 2018.

[79] This was cancelled in October 2018 when the PCC for Devon and Cornwall was unwilling to submit the merger plans to the Home Office for consideration.