Latvian heads visit Boston police station

Officers in Boston were joined by the heads of the Latvian police service last week in a bid to continue strengthening links with the community
By The Newsroom
Published 16th Mar 2018, 08:54 BST
Updated 16th Mar 2018, 09:00 BST
(L-R) Deputy Andrejs Grisins, Chief Constable Bill Skelly, Chief Ints Kuzis, Ambassador Baiba Bra~e. Photo supplied EMN-180803-111735001(L-R) Deputy Andrejs Grisins, Chief Constable Bill Skelly, Chief Ints Kuzis, Ambassador Baiba Bra~e. Photo supplied EMN-180803-111735001
(L-R) Deputy Andrejs Grisins, Chief Constable Bill Skelly, Chief Ints Kuzis, Ambassador Baiba Bra~e. Photo supplied EMN-180803-111735001

Lincolnshire Police’s Chief Constable Skelly, Chief Inspector Deb Clark, Insp Andy Morrice and Det Insp Stu Hurst, met with Ints Ķuzis, Chief of the State Police of Latvia; Andrejs Grisins, Deputy Head of the State Police of Latvia; and Baiba Braze, Latvian Ambassador.

The visit gave the Latvian peers the opportunity to learn about theforce’s experience in recruiting foreign language speaking officers – a requirement of a recruitment campaign last autumn.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A spokesman said nine applicants were currently going through the assessment centre and could be ready for the June intake of officers.

Most Popular

Mr Skelly said: “I’m so pleased to have welcomed our Latvian counterparts to Boston to discuss our work with the Latvian community, and others who are foreign nationals and living in the area, and also to strengthen our links with the police service in Latvia.

“We learnt from our visitors today that they were keen to continue to support the strong relationship between Latvia and the Boston area and support policing to ensure that those communities were kept as safe as possible and we will make sure we feed this back into our neighbourhood policing teams so we can continue to strengthen our community bonds in this area of Lincolnshire.

“Lincolnshire is a county made up of a diverse and vibrant population of people and we will continue to take any opportunities like this to continue to learn about and celebrate this wonderfully varied community.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Two dedicated officers currently perform the role of community cohesion within Boston by working within the Neighbourhood Policing Team from Boston Police Station.

The role looks to improve engagement and build trust with the town’s various communities to achieve ‘a safe and secure community, through working with partner agencies and the diverse communities’.

Chief Insp Clark said: “Boston is a thriving market town which has a diverse community.

“The role of community cohesion is a unique role to Boston owing to its diversity and it is anticipated that we can forge even stronger links with the latest recruitment campaign and foreign national speaking officers who will be joining us.

“I am confident that the measures we have in place to promote social and community cohesion are working and Boston is embracing the diversity.”