HAVE YOUR SAY: Are our police value for money?
Wednesday, 4.30pm: A report last week branded Lincolnshire Police as poor for "local crime and policing" - but do you agree?
LINCOLNSHIRE Police is among the poorest in the country at "local crime and policing" - according to statistics released by the force watchdog last week.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary came up with its "report card" for each force last week - with this county rated poor for "local crime and policing" but fair in the categories "protecting people from serious harm" and "confidence and satisfaction".
It was one of only three forces in the country to receive the lowest rating in that category - the others being Nottinghamshire and Greater Manchester - which are classed as "causing concern".
Her Majesty's Inspector for Lincolnshire Zoe Billingham described the county's performance as "mixed".
She said: "Confidence in policing improved significantly last year and is now in line with peer forces.
"The force is currently poor in dealing with crimes that matter to local people, such as burglaries, but is taking the right steps to turn performance around.
"In other areas, the force's performance is generally sound. There are encouraging signs of improvement in the way that the force protects the public from more serious crimes."
Car crime and criminal damage fell last year and the proportion of robberies solved increased, as did the percentage of serious sexual offences solved.
However, levels of robbery and violence with injury increased and burglary rates are above average.
Ms Billingham said the cost of policing in Lincolnshire - at 174.10 a year per band D property - is lower than anywhere else in England and Wales.
Deputy Chief Constable Neil Rhodes welcomed the report as a "valuable snapshot" but says the study is a "little dated" - based on the position last September.
He said: "Since the information for the report card was gathered the force has been visited by the police inspectorate and been given a clean bill of health for the management of major crime investigation and is now comfortably meeting the standard required.
"In most crime measures we are in the top half, or even the top quarter of the 43 forces in England and Wales.
"For solving crime we are in the lowest quarter and that simply is not good enough and our communities will see a new energy and a really sharp focus on meaningful and sustainable crime detection in the year ahead."
What do you think of the study? Have your say in our poll to the right hand side of this story.
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Weather for Spalding
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
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Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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