Neil Rhodes
Neil Rhodes takes up his role as Chief Constable of Lincolnshire and marks the culmination of his police career which began when he joined Lincolnshire in 1986. Neil was born and brought up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, in a family with a mining and steel working background. He left school aged 16, with a handful of ‘O’ levels and worked for South Yorkshire County Council in an office based job. He spent a year travelling and working abroad before joining Lincolnshire.
During 15 years with Lincolnshire Police he progressed from Constable to Superintendent, working across the county as a patrol officer, a detective and in roads policing before joining Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary at superintendent rank.
In 2000 he transferred to Humberside Police, where he served as a superintendent and chief superintendent, working in Scunthorpe and Hull. He was selected for the Strategic Command Course in 2003 and on his return to Humberside he served a period of acting assistant chief constable.
He moved to Cumbria Police as Assistant Chief Constable in late 2004, where he held both operational and organisational development portfolios before returning to Lincolnshire as Deputy Chief Constable in the autumn of 2008.
Over the past three years Neil has led the reshaping of the force, stripping out BCU boundaries and developing a ‘whole force’ approach. The senior management structure of the force has been recast and the operational officers refocused on performance delivery and quality of service to the community. Lincolnshire has recently developed a framework contract for the wider service in relation to the outsourcing of back office, custody and control room functions that is receiving national attention.
During the course of his police career he has improved his educational qualifications. In addition to the normal police examinations, he has a law degree (University of London) and a Masters degree in criminology (University of Cambridge).
Nationally, he holds the performance and courts portfolios in the ACPO Criminal Justice Business Area and the Crime Information portfolio in the Performance Management Business Area, being the ACPO lead for the countrywide adoption of Crime Mapper.
