Inspector says Lincolnshire Police are “Good”

The Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police, Neil Rhodes, today welcomed the publication of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s inspection report saying,

“This report is a powerful endorsement of the force’s current performance despite our difficult financial circumstances. We are recognised as “Good” in terms of our effectiveness at reducing crime and preventing offending. HMIC have also rated Lincolnshire Police as “Good” at tackling anti-social behaviour. In the area of investigation the Inspectorate have suggested we should improve and we already working hard to do that.

This report follows a report earlier this year in which HMIC graded us “Outstanding” for delivering affordable policing. I am proud of how we continue to innovate and make the best of the money we have.

But we have the lowest levels of overall funding in the Country. Further cuts will undoubtedly mean we cannot maintain our current service beyond 2016. It is essential that the government acts now if we are to avoid the public being put at greater risk in the future. The Police and Crime Commissioner and I are committed to working with the Home Secretary to develop an approach to funding that will give a fairer deal to Lincolnshire.”

In depth commentary

The HMIC Crime inspection provides a wide ranging assessment of how well forces are doing in three particular areas:

– How effective a force is at preventing offending, reducing and investigating crime and tackling antisocial behaviour.

– How efficient a force is in terms of securing its finance position and is the force providing affordable policing.

– How a force ensures it acts with integrity, what are the public perceptions and does the force respond to calls for service appropriately.

In terms of our effectiveness to prevent offending, reduce crime and tackle antisocial behaviour (both graded as ‘Good’), we have continued to see crime reductions over recent years which have been greater than the rest of the country. The report recognises that we have effective partnership arrangements. We have good channels of communication with the public and we use restorative justice processes effectively with good, independent oversight. There are areas for improvement in terms of the supervision of crime investigation and in the timeliness of allocation that we are working hard already to address. We also recognise the need to improve victim satisfaction and maintain effective contact with victims.

In this assessment HMIC make use of their “Policing in Austerity” report in which they grade our affordability in providing policing as outstanding. But that report also reiterates the challenge of having the lowest level of funding in the country whilst also having one of the highest workloads per police officer.

In the last four years we have reduced our budget by £20 million. We have made extensive use of collaboration with other forces in the East Midlands and also outsourced a number of back office support services to a private sector partner. Our options to achieve the further savings demanded by Government are extremely limited.

The Force is committed to continuing to innovate and make the best use of all our resources and assets but further cuts would see our ability to maintain our current service beyond 2016 severely compromised. In order to achieve the potential savings required, the only option available would be to reduce the workforce further.

This would significantly affect public safety, officer safety and the provision of service generally.

The Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner are therefore committed to fighting for a fairer deal for Lincolnshire.