More police foot patrols in Boston and Sleaford and soon Skegness, Louth, Mablethorpe and Gainsborough thanks to £1m grant
Police foot patrols are increasing across Lincolnshire, thanks to a £1million grant secured by Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
The operation was launched in mid-July in Lincoln, but has now been extended to Boston and Sleaford.
Additional patrols will soon be introduced in Gainsborough, Skegness, Mablethorpe and Louth.
The aim, a spokesman for PCC Marc Jones said, is to ‘increase visible police presence’, and, in turn, ‘tackle anti-social behaviour and reassure businesses and the public’.
PCC Marc Jones secured the additional funding from the Home Office.
Since the operation launched, there have been more than 425 extra ‘patrol hours’, the spokesman said, leading to 11 arrests and 14 stop and searches made.
Lincolnshire Police 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.
The additional patrols have been made possible by paying existing officers overtime.
Of the ‘hotspot’ policing, Mr Jones said: “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.
“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.”
The funding lasts until the end of March next year.
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.”