Police Chief Inspector Jim Tyner retires on Thursday

Police Chief Inspector Jim Tyner retires this week from Lincolnshire Police and will shortly switch to a new role with the National Trust.

Jim (55) has been working as force operational lead for Operation Galileo - set up to tackle hare coursing - and recently received a Chief Constable’s commendation for his role.

Year on year, the Galileo team witnessed a 30 per cent reduction in hare coursing incidents and Jim believes a new policy of seizing dogs was pivotal in turning the tide.

One landowner targeted 52 times in the previous season had two visits in the most recent one.

“Just imagine being a repeat victim 52 times,” said Jim.

In January 2013, Jim was appointed Neighbourhood Inspector for South Holland, based in Spalding, and says that was his favourite job with the force.

He was in the role until March 2015, when he moved to Skegness as Chief Inspector for East Lindsey and then slotted into a similar role at Grantham.

His police career stretches back 26 years and for most of that time - some 21 years - Jim and wife Jayne, who have grown-up children Damien and Natalie, have lived in Spalding.

The couple have just celebrated their silver wedding with a holiday in Cuba.

While in the top job at Spalding, Jim forged a reputation for being visible, accessible, accountable and willing to listen - and to do something, whenever possible, about community concerns.

Through his weekly columns in the Spalding Guardian and use of the social media platform, Twitter, Jim reached out to the community in a way that none of his predecessors ever had.

Jim started out as a volunteer special constable in 1989 and then, in 1990, he joined as a full-time member of the civilian staff working on the front desk of the old police station, which sits behind the former Spalding Magistrates’ Court.

He joined the force as a constable in 1992.

Jim said: “The absolute highlight was being the Neighbourhood Inspector at Spalding, introducing Twitter, having the parish council meetings and the community liaison meetings and just meeting the community and finding out what their concerns were ... and letting them know what we were doing about it and sometimes what we couldn’t do about it.

“It was my favourite job. I felt as though I was making a difference to our community.”

In July, Jim becomes property operations manager for The National Trust’s Elizabethan lodge and moated garden, Lyveden, near Oundle.

It’s a dream job for the history enthusiast and keen gardener who had set his heart on a job with a not-for-profit organisation.

Jim said: “It’s the first job application or interview that I have done since the early 80s. I am absolutely over the moon.”

After becoming a constable, Jim was posted first to Boston, then Spalding and then he was promoted to sergeant, transferring to Stamford, where he worked on the rural task force and had his first encounter with hare coursing.

He has also worked as staff officer for Assistant Chief Constable Peter Davies and spent time seconded to the Home Office to help delivery of neighbourhood policing to every force in England and Wales.

Jim retires officially at midnight on Thursday but he’s effectively left already and says: “It’s very strange not having a warrant card in my pocket.”