POLICE need to evaluate how good their neighbourhood police training is, according to a new report.

The report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary also says control room and enquiry centre staff need to make more return calls to people who contact them.

The new report, which assesses the force's neighbourhood policing and community strategies, also recommends working more closely with communities to identify and agree officers' objectives and aims.

The report assessed Dorset Police as meeting the standard' needed in their community work and exceeding it in regards to their Citizen Focus' strategy.

Dorset Police were also described in the report as market leaders' among other forces in terms of its neighbourhood and community strategies.

Chief Constable Martin Baker said: "Dorset Police, their staff and volunteers, are totally committed to not only providing a service that local people need and expect, but also to being part of communities and jointly working with people to make Dorset safer and more pleasant to live in and visit.

"I am exceptionally proud of all our officers, staff and volunteers and we are immensely grateful to the public and our partner agencies for their help in cutting crime.

"Dorset Police are never complacent and we are working hard with local communities to cut crime further and provide an even better service to members of the public across the county."

The report is entitled Dorset Police Neighbourhood Policing and Developing Citizen Focus Policing.

It says: Notwithstanding the positive comments made in this report regarding strong branding, there is still a need to raise public awareness of the force's vision and values.' It added: There is a need to introduce a degree of rigour, formalisation and robust audit trails to the manager or supervisor regarding call-backs to victims of crime.' The report also recommended evaluating the current training programme for the force's safer neighbourhoods teams and suggested that the force could work more closely with external bodies to deliver the training.

The report praised the force for identifying exactly what is expected of it' through consultation processes and recommended a greater use of positive comments from customer feedback results in order to increase staff morale.

A force spokesman pointed out that Home Office figures found that it has the highest public confidence rating' of any force in England and Wales.