Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable Neil Rhodes joins The Lincolnite for a web chat this lunch time to answer your questions.
Anyone wishing to submit a question during the Q&A can take part by tweeting @TheLincolnite or via our Facebook page.
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A number of people got in touch with concerns about theft in Lincoln, specifically of pushbikes and motorcycles. What work is ongoing in this area to prevent this happening?
In broad terms we’ve been operational for a couple of years now and I’ve been lucky enough to be the Chief responsible for managing it. In essence, we have one Command providing armed policing, roads policing, dogs, specialist search and public order co-ordination. For a large rural county with a relatively small police force it gives us really good resilience and support and it’s worked extremely well for us.
You mentioned the East Midlands Operational Support Service (EMOpSS), a unique collaboration of services from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. How else does the organisation benefit the county now that it’s almost two years in operation?
Throughout all of my Police service I’ve been dealing with terrible accidents on Lincolnshire’s roads and working to see the number of people who are killed or seriously injured reduced. The good news is there’s a really strong downward trend and we take it very seriously. We have a lot more consistent, sustainable and professional roads policing response over the last two years with the creation of the East Midlands Opertional Support Service where we work with four forces to provide expert roads policing. Alongside that the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership has doe a massive amount to drive down the numbers of people killed or seriously injured on our county’s challenging roads.
Can’t beat beef and pickle!
On a more serious note, many of our readers highlighted to us the number of road incidents in the county such as crashes and fatal incidents. Is this something that is high on the agenda for the force? Do the number of incidents appear to be higher than in previous periods and are you putting crashes down to any recurring issues?
Okay, that’s a tough one…Truthful answer is beef and pickle sandwich and, at the right time, with a glass of Black Sheep to go with it.
Chief Constable Neil Rhodes has joined us at The Lincolnite offices and will be here for the next hour responding to questions sent in by our readers. Welcome Neil!
We’ll start with a very easy question from one of our readers to get the Q&A rolling: “What’s your favourite sandwich?”