The eyes and ears of your community – we’re celebrating Neighbourhood Policing this week

The people who make up our communities – residents, workers, school pupils, college and university students, those who visit us – are at the heart of everything we do.

This is why we have dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs), who are your problem-solvers, investigators and mediators, there to protect you each day alongside officers from other areas of the Force.

They are as invested in protecting the community you live and work in as you are, because, well, they live and work there too. Because of this, they know the people in the areas they serve, and those people know them.

So much of their work goes unseen because it doesn’t fall into the “traditional” vision of policing, such as a police officer in a patrol car or on the streets. Instead, much of what they do happens in the background – phone calls and visits with vulnerable victims, meetings with partner agencies when we identify someone in need of safeguarding or at risk of committing crime, or research they’re conducting about criminality on your streets from a station.

This week (22 to 28 January), we’re joining other forces nationally to celebrate that work as part of Neighbourhood Policing Week of action. Throughout the week we will be showcasing some of the successes our NPTs have had in recent times, as well as talking more about who they are and what they do.

Chief Superintendent Kate Anderson, Lincolnshire Police’s Neighbourhood Policing strategic lead, said: “Our NPTs are at their fore, problem solvers. Their job is understanding what the challenges are in specific areas, and finding solutions. Often, this means identifying an emerging issue and problem-solving it before it manifests. They are the eyes and ears of our communities, and a vital cog in our policing machine. But we have another group of people we have to recognise in the work that they do, which is our communities. They form a vital part of cracking down on crime in their area by providing us with intelligence so that we can start to build a picture of the problem and tackle it head-on.

“We have great engagement, but we know there is more to be done, including encouraging people to make reports. Often, people might be suffering from an issue – for example repeated anti-social behaviour, intimidation, or feeling frightened by drugs activity in their street – but don’t make a report to the police. The issue might be discussed between local residents or businesses, but unless it’s discussed with us, we won’t always know about it and can’t start to tackle it. Every report forms a piece of a bigger puzzle which helps us build an intelligence picture to tackle the issue. We all need to look out for each other, and by engaging with officers about issues you feel need our attention, you can play your part in helping us to help you.”

As part of Neighbourhood Policing week, we are also asking people to complete the trust and confidence survey, which asks a single question: “Taking everything into account, how good a job is Lincolnshire Police doing?”

Respondents can answer this question on a star rating scale from 1 -5. One star = very poor, and five stars = very good. The aim is that by asking the public this question, insight and feedback data will be returned, so that we can understand how people are feeling about policing in Lincolnshire and adapt the service accordingly.

C/Supt Anderson added: “We also want you to become more involved in the decisions we make about how we police where you live and work by having your say about how we are policing, and by engaging with us each quarter when we set our priorities. The latest round of priorities – what we will focus our efforts on in your community – will be released tomorrow (23 January), and you can influence our decisions by using Next Door to vote on a number of topics. We open polls a few weeks ahead of making decision, so look out for this towards the middle of March.

Find out more about our NPTs by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or local Next Door accounts, using #NeighbourhoodPolicingWeek and #WeekOfAction.