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Rachel Blackwell is the new neighbourhood policing inspector for Stamford, Bourne and the Deepings and replaces Ian Martin




I’d like to introduce myself as the new Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Stamford, Bourne and The Deepings, and tell you some of my plans for the six months ahead.

I joined Lincolnshire Police in January 2000 as a 22-year-old probationer and have worked in this area for the majority of those 19 years, with some time on response and in custody at Lincoln, and a summer season as inspector at Skegness.

I have mostly worked as a neighbourhood sergeant in this area, so arrive to the post with a good understanding of the issues that affect us most.

Photo: Lee Hellwing
Photo: Lee Hellwing

Having taken over from Inspector Martin, I will pick up from where he left off in terms of maintaining the network of contacts he has established.

The team I’ll be responsible for is made up of five sergeants, 20 response officers, one beat manager and five PCSOs. Providing 24-hour cover, they work the whole area from Stamford to Bourne to Folkingham, to Market Deeping and Deeping St James and all the villages in between.

I know the area well, and I’m looking forward to leading the team.

Rachel Blackwell, neighbourhood policing inspector for Stamford, Bourne and the Deepings
Rachel Blackwell, neighbourhood policing inspector for Stamford, Bourne and the Deepings

My plan has two main goals to focus on: the issues that are causing most harm, and the issues affecting the quality of life of our residents.

So, what will that look like?

Individuals and families who make the lives of others around them a misery will be focused on with early intervention by us along with our partners.

Ian Martin, who has taken up a new role within the force
Ian Martin, who has taken up a new role within the force

We often get involved in incidents where I feel that some callers could be doing more to help themselves in the first place, but prefer that police resolve their differences before attempting to themselves.

As an example, we may receive a report of a dispute between neighbours whose border hedge has grown out of control.

Or another call in which someone is refusing to return a ladder he has borrowed from the caller.

It is a tough position, but we will take a hard look at the circumstances of each call, and ask “does this really need the police to resolve it?”

My expectation is that a caller will have tried to sort things out amicably themselves, or considered civil action.

Offenders who pose a threat or risk to the wellbeing of our community sit high on my agenda.

My time in this area has shown that we are vulnerable to travelling criminals who come into our county, commit offences, and then leave.

I plan to make best use of the officers we have in our specialist departments at Grantham and police headquarters who can react quickly to track and detain cross-border criminals as soon as possible after they commit offences.

Our work will be to identify emerging problems and hotspots, and get to work quickly to resolve the issue before it gets out of hand.

Recent hotspots include anti-social behaviour in the Deepings and Langtoft, on the Meadows in Stamford and a very recent spate of damage to vehicles in residential streets in Stamford late at night.

Our daily business continues alongside all of our ‘hotspot’ work, and the reality is that this is a demanding juggling act. To give you a sense of what that looks like, on my last day as a sergeant before taking over as inspector, I had to decide how to deal with the following calls in just one daytime shift for this area:

l A suspected drink driver at Twenty in custody who needed to be interviewed

l A boy in custody who needed to be interviewed over an alleged assault on his mother in Market Deeping

lAlleged threats of serious harm and harassment by a former partner in Baston needing statements taken, suspects interviewing and a charging decision from the Crown Prosecution Service before a court file could be compiled

l 13 routine crimes to be dealt with including shop thefts, thefts of diesel and oil, malicious communications offences, nightclub assault

l An urgent incident in Stamford that required the arrest of a child assaulting a family member

l A travelling criminal vehicle who had been active in Stamford and responsible for a number of high value thefts across the area who was stopped with a number of designer jackets in his possession

l A man acting in a threatening way in an estate agent’s in Bourne

l A missing Stamford teenager who had returned home and needed a home visit and ‘found report’ to be undertaken

On this particular day there were three police constables and one PCSO on duty for this area to work through this considerable list of tasks.

Ultimately, our work should be designed around how we can best allow our residents to feel safe in the area we live, and allow you to feel confident in your local police.

To do that, we need to better understand what our communities want us to focus on. Part of my plan is to establish through online and printed surveys what you’d like our focus to be.

At present, our biggest audience is our Facebook page, with a following of 4,791 people, but we will also be printing the survey in the Mercury and making paper copies available to pick up from various locations in our towns.

The work of our parish and town councils will also feed into this and this will help to give us a balanced and representative view of what issues are affecting us most.

I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck in and I can assure you that my style is direct, open and honest. I’ll try to do the right thing, I’m not a fan of ‘police speak’ or jargon, and will take constructive feedback where it’s due.



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