The 10 Lincolnshire towns targeted in summer street crime blitz

They are among 43 towns in the East Midlands and 500 in England to have signed up to the Home Secretary’s Safer Streets summer blitz that will see shops benefit from increased police patrols and local action to tackle town centre crime and anti-social behaviour.

Thousands of shoppers and businesses will see increased police presence, stronger prevention and enforcement action by police and councils to support safer high streets this summer.

Sreas of focus in Lincolnshire will be Lincoln, Boston, Louth, Stamford, Spalding, Gainsborough, Grantham, Skegness, Mablethorpe and Sleaford, thanks to £1million funding from the government.

thre have been reported increases in theft from the person between December 2022-2024 and shop theft, with offenders increasingly using violence and abuse against shopworkers.

This marks a key step in delivering the government's Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which from July will see named, contactable officers in every community, increased peak time patrols in town centres and anti-social behaviour leads in every force.

Commissioned by the Home Secretary, Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales have developed bespoke local action plans with police, businesses and local councils to crack down on crime this summer.

The aim is to support town centres to be vibrant places where people want to live, work and spend time, and restore faith in community policing after years of declining police officer presence on Britain’s streets.

These plans include increased visible town centre policing and ramping up the use of targeted enforcement powers against troublemakers – including banning perpetrators from hotspots.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “High streets and town centres are the very heart of our communities. Residents and businesses have the right to feel safe in their towns.”

She said shop theft, street crime and anti-social behaviour has left too many town centres feeling abandoned.

She wished police forces and councils to send a clear message that these crimes will no longer go unpunished.

The summer initiative will also support young people, making sure there are activities across the 500 towns for young people to be involved in throughout the holidays.

The Home Office, alongside police, retailers and industry are also launching a new Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy, which will use shared data to assist in disrupting not just organised criminal gangs, but all types of perpetrators including prolific offenders who are stealing to fund an addiction and ‘opportunist’ offenders, by bringing together multiple sources of data from industry and policing to create a single avenue for intelligence to help better target and respond to perpetrators.

Police and retailers will also team up with security firms and local communities to locate the highest harm areas and identify the role offender management programmes can play in breaking the cycle of crime for repeat offenders.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the Safer Streets Summer Initiative will play a vital role in keeping footfall high, communities and those that work in them safe, and the economy growing.

The government is set to introduce a new law to protect shop workers from abuse.

Anthony Hemmerdinger, Managing Director, Boots said: "While we continue to invest significantly in schemes to deter and disrupt crime, including our state-of-the-art CCTV monitoring centre and bodycams for our team members in stores, it is only through collaboration with Government, police forces, and local communities, that we can ensure high streets feel like welcoming and safe spaces for people to work, shop and visit, all the time."

Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Emily Spurrell said: “Tackling retail crime and ASB is essential to allowing our town centres to flourish. People have a right to feel safe and shop workers shouldn’t have to defend their stores against regular and organised theft, putting themselves at risk of violence.

“As the public’s voice in policing, we have long understood that neighbourhood policing is key to addressing these issues which is why we welcomed the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. It will see thousands more officers on our streets and introduce specialist training for them to operate effectively within local communities, building trust.”

The Safer Streets Summer Initiative will run from June 30 to September 30.

Richard Walker, Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods said: "Our colleagues and customers are our number one priority at Iceland, and I hope this increase in visible policing will give them more confidence to enjoy our high streets and communities in safety this summer."

Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss is the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for retail crime. He said: “We know retail crime has a significant impact on victims, damages businesses and communities and goes far beyond financial loss. We also know it is a complex problem with a diverse offender profile and is something which requires a strong partnership approach, tackling the issues together.

“Over the last two years we have made significant strides in our fight against retail crime, strengthening relationships with retailers and greatly improving information sharing which has resulted in a number of high harm offenders being brought to justice and the new Retail Crime Strategy builds on this even further. It brings together policing, retailers, the security industry and academia in a shared strategy which makes best use of our collective resources to turn the tide on the volume of offending blighting our communities.

“A collective approach is key, ensuring everyone can enjoy where they live, work and spend their leisure time safely.”