Extra foot patrols being carried out across the county by Lincolnshire Police have now exceeded 1,000 hours.
The additional patrols have been paid for with a £1million grant secured by Lincolnshire’s Police ad Crime Commissioner Marc Jones.
The operation was launched in July and has meant more officers on the beat in Lincoln, Boston, Sleaford, Gainsborough, Skegness, Mablethorpe and Louth over the last four months.
The additional 1,079 patrol hours have resulted in 21 antisocial behaviour powers being used, 31 stop and searches conducted and 29 arrests 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.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire, Marc Jones said: “These additional foot patrols are already proving how important boots on the ground across our communities are. They have been received very positively by residents, business owners and the police officers themselves but it’s important to recognise this has been enabled by a one-off lump sum. 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.”
Superintendent Fran Harrod, East Commander for Local Policing and Prevention said: “We identified hotspot areas by analysing where need was greatest and the results are clearly demonstrating the value of evidence-led policing, with this additional resource complimenting all the great work that Policing colleagues and partners, i.e. Council, Fire and Rescue, to name a few, already do as daily business to combat ASB, across our county. As we all know, where ASB is allowed to go unchecked, this can have a huge impact on communities, so it is a consistent priority for your local Neighbourhood Policing Teams; the Hotspot Policing Patrols have really assisted them in their long-term problem solving and endeavours to make Lincolnshire the safest place to live, work and visit.”
The funding lasts until the end of March next year.
