The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Basically, our issues and concerns are the same as his.
The 36-year-old divorced father-of-two took up the role on Monday (May 15) and has spoken of his pride.
“I was honoured to be asked to do the job,” he said. “It’s nice to serve the town and area that you grew up in.”
Insp Boxall has succeeded Jo Reeves, who has moved to a role in tackling cyber crime.
He’s of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought but will be giving some focus to a recent spike in shoplifting in Spalding, doing further work with ShopWatch and the chamber of commerce.
Rural crime is another area being targeted, and preparation for the onset of the hare coursing “sport” season in September has been a focus.
Insp Boxall said: “We have some exciting new ways of dealing with it, so watch this space.
“It’s fair to say we’ve made some progress with it in this last season.”
Stretched resources are not unique to South Holland and will be a challenge for the new inspector. Three new full-time officers in South Holland in late summer should help the cause.
“It’s about having people in the right place at the right time and sometimes we have to hedge our bets,” he said. “We have two big borders with Cambridgeshire and Norfolk and I want to try and work with those forces a bit more.”
Meanwhile, community engagement is as key as ever. Twitter users can expect to see increased activity on the @SpaldingInsp account. Insp Boxall sees it as an important tool to inform and update people.
He added: “It is only one of the ways we keep in touch, though. We will have street surgeries, the enquiry office is available because we recognise that people do still want to come to the police station and there is the recent addition of being able to report crime online.”
For more on reporting crime online, see www.lincs.police.uk
