Lincolnshire Police is the

territorial police force A territorial police force is a police service that is responsible for an area defined by sub-national boundaries, distinguished from other police services which deal with the entire country or a type of crime. In countries organized as federations, ...

covering the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unoffi ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Despite the name, the force's area does not include

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

and

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton ...

, which are covered by

Humberside Police Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe. The chief constable since 2017 is Lee Freeman. Histor ...

instead. In terms of geographic area the force is one of the largest in the

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

covering 2,284 square miles. The population of the area covered by the force is 736,700. As of 2010 the force currently employs over 2,500 people. As at May 2016, there were 1,100 police officers, 200 Special Constables and 149 PCSOs.

History

Lincolnshire Constabulary was formed in 1856 under the

County and Borough Police Act 1856 The County and Borough Police Act 1856 or the Police Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict c 69) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Police Acts 1839 to 1893.The Short Titles Act 1896, section 2(1) and Schedule 2 The Act made it ...

. Several other borough police forces used to exist in the county, but these were eventually combined with the Lincolnshire force. Under the

Police Act 1946 The Police Act 1946 (1946 c.46) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the amalgamation of smaller borough police forces with county constabularies in England and Wales, allowed for the merger of county ...

Boston Borough Police Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and

Grantham Borough Police Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) s ...

were merged, while

Lincoln City Police Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

and

Grimsby Borough Police Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

were absorbed under the

Police Act 1964 The Police Act 1964 (1964 c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that updated the legislation governing police forces in England and Wales, constituted new police authorities, gave the Home Secretary new powers to supervise lo ...

. Lincolnshire lost part of its area to the new

in 1974. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 918 officers and an actual strength of 883. Proposals made by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

on 20 March 2006 would have seen the force merge with the other four

forces to form a strategic police force for the entire region. These proposals were ended by John Reid in June 2006. The police authority received £287,600 from the Home Office for costs of preparing the ill-fated merger. In 2008 the Lincolnshire Police Authority experienced a funding crisis. The authority claimed that the central government grant was insufficient to provide efficient policing in Lincolnshire, due to the unfavourable working of the formula used by the government to assess police grants. The authority decided to reduce the shortfall by making a 79% increase in its precept (the portion of

Council Tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge The Community C ...

payable to the Police Authority). The government then announced its intention to "cap" this demand, resulting in a net 26% increase.

Chief constables

* 1856–1901: Captain Philip Bicknell * 1901–03: Major Charles Brinkley * 1903–31: Captain Cecil Mitchell-Innes, CBE, KPM * 1931–34: Colonel Gordon Herbert Ramsay Halland, CIE, OBE * 1934–54: Sir Raymond Hatherell Fooks, CBE, KPM * 1954–56: Herman Graham Rutherford * 1956–69: John William Barnett, OBE * 1970–73: George Walter Roberts Terry, QPM * 1973–77:

Lawrence Byford Sir Lawrence Byford (10 August 1925 – 10 February 2018) was an English police officer who served as Chief Inspector of Constabulary from 1983 to 1987. His inquiry into the failings of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation by West Yorkshire Police ...

, QPM * 1977–83: James Kerr, QPM * 1983–90: Stanley William Crump, QPM * 1990–94: Neville Gilbert Ovens, QPM * 1994–98: John Peter Bensley, QPM * 1998–2003: Richard John Nicholas Childs, QPM * 2003–08: James Anthony Lake, QPM * 2008–12: Richard Philip deJordan Crompton, QPM * 2012–17: Neil Rhodes * 2017–2020: William Alan Skelly, QPM * 2020present : Chris Haward

Alumni

(former Chief Constable) – father of

Mark Byford Mark Julian Byford (born 13 June 1958) was Deputy Director-General of the BBC and head of BBC journalism from 2004 to 2011. He chaired the BBC Journalism Board and was a member of the BBC Executive Board for thirteen years. His responsibilities ...

Arthur Troop Arthur Troop, BEM (15 December 1914 – 30 November 2000) was a British police officer who founded the International Police Association (IPA). Born in Lincoln, Troop began his working life as a mechanic, but later studied economics and social s ...

– police sergeant who started the

International Police Association The International Police Association (IPA) is a Non-Governmental Organization for members of the police force, whether in employment or retired. By 2021, there were more than 360,000 members in nearly 100 countries, of which 65 are affiliated ...

on 1 January 1950, with initial resistance from his superiors.

District structure

The Chief Constable is Chris Haward. Lincolnshire Police has an establishment of about 1,100

police officers A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

. In 2011, the force underwent major changes to its organisation; divisions went and front line officers were organised into Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) and Response (area cars). Previously there were three "divisions" (West, East, & South) with Lincoln, Skegness, and Grantham hosting the divisional headquarters of each. The

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

is divided into four "districts" for the purposes of policing. These areas each effectively pair two district/borough council areas into one policing district, and are: * Lincoln & West Lindsey (covering

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

, and

Market Rasen Market Rasen ( ) is a town and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The River Rase runs through it east to west, approximately north-east from Lincoln, east from Gainsborough, 14 miles (23 km) west of Louth ...

) * North & South Kesteven (covering

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...

, North Hykeham, Bracebridge Heath, Market Deeping, Bourne and Stamford) * Coast & Wolds (covering

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

Mablethorpe Mablethorpe is a seaside town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, part of the civil parish of Mablethorpe and Sutton.OS Explorer map 283:Louth and Mablethorpe: (1:25 000): The population including nearby Sutton-on-Sea was 12, ...

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

and

Horncastle Horncastle is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains. History Romans Alt ...

) * Boston & South Holland (covering

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Spalding, Holbeach, and Sutton Bridge). The force has armed response vehicles manned by Roads Policing Officers (RPU). Officers from Lincolnshire are also detached to EMSOU, East Midlands Special Operations unit. The force has its own underwater search unit that consists of one part-time team of around ten officers and this unit is based permanently at the Lincolnshire Police Headquarters.

Other departments

As with all police forces, Lincolnshire Police has many specialist departments aside from the officers and PCSOs that respond initially to calls from the public. These include the Roads Armed Policing Team (who also form the force's Firearms and Traffic response), Dog section, Public Protection Unit (including specialist sexual offences officers), Scenes Of Crime, Custody suites, and the Force Control Room. In addition to this are other support departments such as IT and HR. Officers and Police Staff forming these departments are based across the county, but most having their main office at Force Headquarters in Nettleham. Lincolnshire Police operates a

Special Constabulary The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of statutory police forces in the United Kingdom and some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as special constables. Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a specia ...

that has approximately 200 officers from the rank of Special Constable to Special Superintendent. Officers are based throughout the county out of local police stations. Lincolnshire Special Constabulary also has offices deployed in specialist units such as wildlife crime and Safer Roads unit.

References

External links

*
Lincolnshire Police
at

HMICFRS His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales, and since ...

{{Authority control Police forces of England

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

1856 establishments in England Organizations established in 1856