Chief Constable reflects as he prepares to leave Lincolnshire Police

Three years is a long time in the world of policing, and next month Lincolnshire Police’s Chief Constable will see his tenure come to an end. We sat down with Chris Haward to reflect on his career in Lincolnshire, and the obstacles you face when tasked with operating the lowest funded police force in the UK.

Chris Haward joined Lincolnshire Police as Chief Constable in December 2020, taking over from Bill Skelly. In that time he has seen COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, public protests, and his officers hit national headlines for dancing at a Pride event.

He officially leaves the force in February 2024, moving on to pastures new with the National Police Chief’s Council.

The departing Chief Constable said he had “very mixed emotions” about leaving Lincolnshire Police, citing family circumstances and an exciting opportunity as his reasons behind saying goodbye to the local force’s top job.

“It’s not what I wanted to do at this stage,” he admits. “But family circumstances kind of played a part in this, and then the opportunity at the same time. I’m going into a really good job with a national serious and organised crime coordinator role.

“I’d always anticipated I’d be here for five years, but life has a way of throwing curveballs at you. Before Christmas, the only way I could describe it is that I was grieving, but now I’ve come into the New Year I’m thinking about getting my head into the new job and looking at it more positively.

“It’ll be a sad day when I walk out, absolutely.”

Chief Constable Haward had to deal with turbulent moments both on a local and national level, not least navigating the force out of the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the rest of the country.

He describes this time as a “challenge” and says it was tough to “move back into normality” after the lockdowns eased and public life returned to what it was pre-2020.

“Everybody had got used to working from home, we had minimum staffing levels, and the challenge was that cultural transition of coming back into the office.

“As well as this, we saw the sudden rise in anti-social behaviour and public order. It wasn’t going anywhere exceptional compared to pre-COVID, but obviously people have gone through two years of none of that kind of thing happening, to it suddenly exploding again.

“I think the force has adapted really well to COVID, taking a very balanced and proportionate approach, which was very much about the education and engagement rather than enforcement.

“That speaks volumes for the way this force operates, it’s very much here for the community and with the community.”

Out on the streets of Lincolnshire, Chris Haward said Lincolnshire Police has reached around two assaults per day on its officers, and some busier days can see as many as four officers become victims of assault by members of the public.

Another clear challenge for Lincolnshire Police and Chris Haward has been public perception and trust in the force, particularly off the back of a difficult few years for national policing — whether it be the tragic murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of then-police officer Wayne Couzens, or the Louise Casey report into the Metropolitan Police last year.

Mr Haward said it has been “difficult” at times due to the national headlines of such incidents, but was keen to stress that these were the “horrible” and “extreme” actions of “one or two individuals” who “don’t represent the wider policing body.”

He adds: “They certainly don’t represent me and the officers and staff I see at this force. One of the pieces we’ve focused on in the three years I’ve been here has been about our culture, and the approach of having the courage to speak out and stand up for people.

“It’s about being an upstander, not a bystander. We’re very robust in getting rid of people who demonstrate these negative behaviours, so it’s encouraging our own officers and staff to have the courage to stand up, but it’s also about our leaders listening and doing something about it.

“We shouldn’t tar policing with the same brush, because individuals being bad happens in every walk of life, we need to keep it in context and keep it in proportion.”

The county’s force hit the national headlines in 2022, when officers joined in with a Macarena dance at the Lincoln Pride festival. It received huge attention, support but also backlash in equal measure, but Lincolnshire Police’s Chief Constable says he can’t believe the furore around the situation.

“We have underrepresented communities and our Pride community is one of them.

“In the past they have been subjected to disproportionate activity and enforcement from the police, and it’s really important that we engage with them to build confidence.

“If my officers had stood at the side not talking to anybody and looking like robots, we’d have been criticised for that and I think the furore came on this one because it’s Pride.

“I’ve been at festivals where people are wearing my hat and I’m dancing with them, I’ve been at football matches in the stands engaging with fans, nobody’s ever criticised me for that. This was blown up into a political issue, which it should never have been.

“It was an innocent and perfectly reasonable thing for my officers to have been doing and I am very proud of them for having done that. I will continue to support them because that is how we build confidence and trust in our communities.”

The 2024 challenges around the potential housing of asylum seekers at RAF Scampton is not something that Chris Haward will oversee in its entirety, but it is something he is keen to get right.

With protests and camps set up outside the base and an ongoing legal battle between the Home Office and West Lindsey District Council, it is a complex issue that will require adequate policing numbers.

Last year it was reported that some £1.8 million of Home Office funding had been earmarked for Lincolnshire Police to hire staff and tackle any issues around RAF Scampton, but the Chief Constable says this is funding the force is still awaiting.

“The challenges we’ve got for policing are going to be very much around resourcing,” Mr Haward said.

“We continue to be the lowest funded force in the country, and the funding settlement this year has not been favourable to Lincolnshire, again.

“We’re seeking additional funds to pay for the policing at Scampton, and we’ve yet to see that come through.

“We’ve made representations to the Policing Minister and the Home Secretary about it, but unless our funding position changes, Scampton is going to be a real challenge for us.”

When asked for what he considers to be Lincolnshire Police’s greatest achievement during his three-year tenure as Chief Constable, Haward’s answer pointed to the end of a contractual agreement with contractor G4S, a private security firm that worked alongside Lincolnshire Police for ten years before the decision was made not to renew its contract in 2020.

“I think the way we transitioned with G4S was as smooth and positive as it could have been in any merger or transition of that kind of nature. The way it happened, I thought, was exceptional, and so were the people involved.

“I’m proud of the way the force came together, despite our resourcing, to deliver overall performance. Neighbourhood crime rates are improving, road policing, rural crime, call handling, all are improving.”

By way of regrets, the Chief Constable said there were multiple difficult facets in his role, but the hardest thing he says he had to do was cutting police community support officer numbers almost in half last year.

He says of this: “Funding has always been a challenge, but the hardest thing I’ve had to do was reducing our PCSO numbers.

“If there had been any way of avoiding that, I would have, and I think my regret is not so much about the decision, but having to do it in the first place.

“I was put in a position that left me with no choices, because honestly I think PCSOs should be here and be part of the policing structure, because they offer a really vital service, which is why I kept a core of them.

“It’s easier to rebuild from a base than it is from nothing at all, so I hope that whoever comes in the future, if the funding position changes, they may rethink that and start to reinvest into the PCSO numbers.”