Greater Manchester Police recorded 33,170 crimes in May,the most crime recorded for the last 9 months and its arrest rate is 61% higher than of May 2021 the highest they have been for two years.
The figures come from the Chief Constable Steven Watson who launched a plan a year ago to improve Greater Manchester Police and unveiled a series of promises to the public
GMP was placed into special measures after Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary revealed it had failed to record 80,000 crimes
The force says the Chief Constable, has seen advancement in all areas highlighted as causes for concern by the HMICFRS, and the areas we know our communities rightly expect us to improve upon.
The force has increasingly improved call answer times, with the average call answer time for 999 calls in June at 29 seconds, which is down from 1 minute and 6 seconds in June 2021.
Last weekend saw the best call answer time for 999 that we’ve seen in GMP memory, with call answer times below 10 seconds consistently from Friday evening until Monday morning.
The force is also seeing a positive trend in the 101 call answering time, reduced to 4 minutes and 19 seconds in June 2022, which is faster than its peak of 6 minutes 44 seconds in July 2021.
Trdponse times for grade one calls have reduced since the peak times we were seeing in September last year.
The average response time to Grade 1 incidents in June was 10 minutes and 12 seconds, almost 5 minutes under the 15 minute target. 40% of grade 2 attendance times are now achieved within the target time of one hour.
Times have fallen from 20 hours and 55 minutes in May 2021, to 1 hour and 27 minutes in May 2022.
“Whilst this is a significant improvement, we are continuing to work on this to achieve lower response times. Our work here is by no means complete, but we are delivering on our commitment to the public that at the very first point of contact with GMP, they receive a prompt response and turn out when needed.” said Chief Inspector Watson who added:
“Our major improvement projects for 2022-23 aligned to our improvement plan are clearly set out and fully funded. Each programme is led by a dedicated Chief Officer and overseen by improvement boards to scrutinise our progress in detail. These boards will oversee the delivery of transformational changes to operational policing, with key strategic reviews underway in both response and neighbourhood policing; as well as numerous projects to improve investigative resilience, force intelligence, digital and cyber investigations, and provide a more resilience specialist capability to meet the future demands and tactical deployments envisaged. There is much to accomplish and delivering these projects and improving services require us all to maintain a positive mindset and deliver to the very best of our abilities.”
“An additional focus for us as we head into the next stage of our plan to fully realise our potential is to strengthen our workforce. We are on the cusp of an enormously positive period in our history in that we will continue to forge ahead at pace, and we are recruiting into almost every area of policing the career has to offer. As one of the largest forces in the country, GMP can offer a range of specialisms and diverse experiences that you would not get elsewhere. Other forces may have some of these opportunities but here at GMP, we have them all. All information on our vacancies and information for transferees can be found on our website.
We are making excellent progress in our transition to the resurgent GMP, and it is thanks to our committed officers and staff who are determined to stay the course until we deliver what our public rightly expects of us, and that I am confident we will reach our latent potential. GMP is a force to be reckoned with, and we have positively embarked on the process of becoming the force Greater Manchester deserves. I would like to thank colleagues, our partner agencies and most importantly the good people of Greater Manchester for their continued support whilst we surge on with our mission to be the best police force in the country.
