December 18, 2017 12.23 pm This story is over 75 months old

Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian speakers wanted to join Lincolnshire Police

A recruitment drive.
Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable Bill Skelly Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter

Lincolnshire Police are looking to recruit police officers fluent in Polish, Latvian or Lithuanian to improve communication with Eastern European communities in the county.

Only one in 300 officers are able to communicate in these languages, with one in three people in Boston and South Holland of Eastern European descent.

Within the recruitment drive, the force is looking for between six and 12 officers with these specific language skills.

This will be part of an intake of 60 officers in April, with around 50 of these coming from a recruitment pool within the force.

Chief Constable Bill Skelly said: “We are always looking at how we can improve our service to residents and language barriers often prevent us from giving the very best service to residents who speak limited English.

“We have to be flexible and adjust our workforce to the needs of communities or we are not being efficient in the way we work.

“Having police officers with these particular language skills will be a huge benefit to our investigations and help to ensure vital information is not missed.

“This will also help us to safeguard the public, support victims of crime, solve more cases and bring offenders to justice – all at a much quicker rate than we currently can.

“It is essential we bridge these gaps with our communities and we will continue to put the right people with the right skills in positions where they can make a huge difference.”

For more information and to apply click or tap here.