Police foot patrols have increased across Lincolnshire – thanks to a £1million grant secured by Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.
The operation was launched in July with an initial roll-out in Lincoln but the increased patrols have now been extended to Boston and Sleaford.
Additional patrols will soon be rolled out to Gainsborough, Skegness, Mablethorpe and Louth in a bid to increase visible police presence to tackle anti-social behaviour and reassure businesses and the public.
PCC Marc Jones secured the additional funding from the Home Office and since the operation launch in mid-July there have been more than 425 extra “patrol hours” – with 11 arrests and 14 stop and searches made.
Lincolnshire Police has also been co-ordinating the patrols with Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s Arson Task Force to identify potential hazards and work with local authorities to board up buildings and remove rubbish so those vulnerabilities are dealt with quickly.
The additional patrols have been enabled by paying existing officers’ overtime. Mr Jones said the “hotspot” policing had been a huge success, with very positive feedback from residents and business owners, and it showed what a difference fairer funding for Lincolnshire could make.
“These additional foot patrols have been received very positively by residents, business owners and the police officers themselves but we have to recognise that this has been enabled by a one-off lump sum,” he said.
“Once that money is exhausted we simply cannot afford to continue unless something changes drastically in our funding.
“That is why I will continue my campaign to get our county force a funding package that can deliver policing that we all want for our communities.
“Our residents want more visible policing and we want to deliver that. If we had the same funding as Cumbria we would have 500 more officers. That’s how ridiculous the current formula is.”
Chief Superintendent Kate Anderson, said: “In policing we always target our resources where they are most needed, and this is another way for us to do that. We drilled down into the data to understand which areas could benefit from additional, targeted patrols, which we know can bring reassurance, and act as a deterrent for crime or anti-social behaviour. Alongside thinking about where to dedicate the officers and PSCOs in those patches, we have also considered when these patrols are most needed.
“For example if the data revealed that a particular park in one of our towns or villages always had anti-social behaviour on Friday evenings, this is what we task those officers with. The important thing to make clear is that this activity isn’t in place of the important work our Neighbourhood Policing Teams do each day, which is still getting done; it is there to complement it by tackling some of the issues before they become a bigger problem.”
The funding lasts until the end of March next year.
