The Police Committee of 1856, at the mid summers quarter session appointed the first Chief Constable and agreed on, the amount of men, their wages and means of transport. The Chief Constable then had the task of finding the right men for the job and the dispersal of his personnel throughout the County and straight away find the land where new police stations could be built and where the officers could be housed.
By the end of 1856, 10 Supt’s, 5 Sgt’s and 88 constables had been employed. According to figures agreed that meant that two more Sgt’s and Constables were still required.
At that time, there were few stations, very few lock ups and in some towns the Petty Sessions Courts were still being held in public houses.
There was a requirement for new stations at be built at Dorchester, Beaminster, Cerne Abbas, Wareham, Blandford, Wimborne, Cranborne, Sturminster Newton, Sherborne and Shaftesbury. In other forces which had recently been founded, lock ups were being built attached to station houses which was thought to be a good idea, however attaching court houses was difficult, due to being within two different financial budgets.
Next was the problem of consolidating the Force so attention was turned to getting the police of the other Municipal Boroughs within the County to amalgamate.
These Boroughs were Blandford, Bridport, Dorchester, Lyme, Poole, Shaftesbury and Weymouth (which including Melcombe Regis).
All the Boroughs at that early point appeared to seem happy to acquaint themselves with the County Force after reading the terms involved. Basically the terms were, that their Boroughs should be watched by night and day and establishing how many men were required to police them. At the time Blandford were to have two men, Bridport one Sgt and four men, Dorchester four men, Lyme Regis two men, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis one Sgt and eight men.
The County Force would also be able to use their lock ups free of charge and that the appointment of their men fell with the Chief Constable.
Several Boroughs towns decided that these terms were unacceptable especially where constables in Poole and Weymouth were paid more.