Dorset Police Federation Joins Stop Racism Against Police Campaign

27 April 2026

Dorset Police Federation has put its backing behind the Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police campaign.

Federation Chair Chris Wood has spoken out against the racism Dorset officers faced, after new research found that 11,000 hate crimes have been reported against UK police officers in the past three years.

Police Oracle carried out a Freedom of Information request and found that, in the past year alone in the UK, there were at least 3,648 reported hate crimes with police officer victims. The true figure is likely to be much higher – even close to double – as 21 forces were not able to provide the information.

Humberside Police Federation launched the Stop Racism Against Police campaign, which has now been backed by other Federation branches, with the aim of highlighting racist abuse. Humberside Police Federation Chair Lee Sims is also asking MPs to use their voices in Parliament to lobby for a change in legislation to mandate custodial sentences for those found guilty of racially abusing officers.

Chris said: “We’re really proud to be the first force in the south to get behind this campaign. It's so important. Only last weekend, one of our ARV officers was racially abused while making an arrest.

“The Freedom of Information request revealed that there were only six reported hate crimes against officers in Dorset last year. However, we've also got very low numbers of ethnically diverse officers. It doesn’t matter how many we have; any incidents of racist abuse are too many.

“We need to stand up for our colleagues when we see this happen and challenge racism. I also think that a change in legislation is absolutely the right thing to do – why wouldn't people get behind that?”

Chris added that he thought hate crime was underreported, perhaps because officers didn’t want to make more work for colleagues, or didn’t believe it would lead to anything.

He said: “I've witnessed it throughout my career happening to colleagues, and people say: ‘Oh brush it off, that person was drunk, I can't be bothered to write the statement.’ But actually that doesn't fix the problem. If we don't record it properly, how can we truly understand the issues?

“It absolutely shouldn't be part of the job, and the wider aim is to look at this for all emergency services – being a victim of racism or any hate crime shouldn't be the part of the job for the fire service, the ambulance service, the coast guard. And it shouldn't be part of the job for anyone in society either. It's abhorrent.”

His advice to Dorset Police officers who suffer racial abuse is: “Make sure you report it. There is support out there, from the Federation, the force and the Dorset Ethnic Police Association (DEPA).

“Let's use these channels for reporting hate crime, let's bring people to justice. If we start bringing more people to justice then it should, hopefully, deter people from doing it.

“And if you witness a racist incident against a colleague, don't be a bystander, be an upstander. Call out that it is wrong. Support your colleagues and provide evidence as well. The only way to stop it is to challenge it and prosecute it.”