Lincolnshire Constabulary was formed in 1856 under the County and Borough Police Act 1856. Several other borough police forces used to exist in the county, but these were eventually combined with the Lincolnshire force. Under the Police Act 1946, Boston Borough Police and Grantham Borough Police were merged, while Lincoln City Police and Grimsby Borough Police were absorbed under the Police Act 1964. Lincolnshire lost part of its area to the new Humberside Police in 1974. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 918 officers and an actual strength of 883. Proposals made by the Home Secretary on 20 March 2006 would have seen the force merge with the other four East Midlands forces to form a strategic police force for the entire region. These proposals were ended by John Reid in June 2006. The police authority received £287,600 from the Home Office for costs of preparing the ill-fated merger. In 2008 the Lincolnshire Police Authority experienced a funding crisis. The authority claimed that the central government grant was insufficient to provide efficient policing in Lincolnshire, due to the unfavourable working of the formula used by the government to assess police grants. The authority decided to reduce the shortfall by making a 79% increase in its precept. The government then announced its intention to "cap" this demand, resulting in a net 26% increase.
District structure
The Chief Constable is Bill Skelly. Lincolnshire Police has an establishment of about 1,100 police officers. In 2011, the force underwent major changes to its organisation; divisions went and front line officers were organised into Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Response. Previously there were three "divisions" with Lincoln, Skegness, and Grantham hosting the divisional headquarters of each. The county is divided into four "districts" for the purposes of policing. These areas each effectively pair two district/borough council areas into one policing district, and are:
The force has round the clock armed response vehicles manned by Roads Policing Officers. Front line officers in Lincolnshire also carry Taser electronic incapacitating devices. These use electricity to cause neuromuscular incapacitation to render subjects incapable of free bodily movement for a short period of time whilst the device is operating. Taser is carried in addition to PAVA incapacitant spray. Officers previously used CS spray, however this was removed from service due to it being flammable. PAVA is a non flammable spray liquid. Officers from Lincolnshire are also detached to EMSOU, East Midlands Special Operations unit. The force has its own underwater search unit that consists of one part-time team of around ten officers and this unit is based permanently at the Lincolnshire Police Headquarters.
Other departments
As with all police forces, Lincolnshire Police has many specialist departments aside from the officers and PCSOs that respond initially to calls from the public. These include the Roads Policing Unit, Dog section, Public Protection Unit, Scenes Of Crime, Custody suites, and the Force Control Room. In addition to this are other support departments such as IT and HR. Officers and Police Staff forming these departments are based across the county, but most having their main office at Force Headquarters in Nettleham. Lincolnshire Police operates a Special Constabulary that has approximately 200 officers from the rank of Special Constable to Special Superintendent. Officers are based throughout the county out of local police stations. Lincolnshire Special Constabulary also has offices deployed in specialist units such as wildlife crime and Safer Roads unit. As of July 2018 Lincolnshire Special Constabulary is recruiting.
