Report of Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

This report provides an update on GMP’s City of Manchester division’s journey to improvement.

The committee considered a report of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) which provided an update on the City of Manchester division’s journey to improvement.

Key points and themes within the presentation included:

• Improvements in communication between GMP and partners and the community;
• Improvements to prevent and reduce harm;
• Operations to tackle residential and business burglary; and
• Ambitions for future investment into emergency response resources and police student training.

Some of the key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussion included:

• Commending GMP officers and staff for their service to Manchester and its residents;
• Staff turnover and how greater consistency could be ensured;
• If neighbourhood patrol boundaries would be changed to align with ward boundaries;
• Poor communication of the decision to end university policing patrols;
• Suggesting that GMP devise individual ward plans and create dedicated email addresses for each ward for residents and members to report issues to;
• The rationale behind relocating or redeploying police officers;
• Noting a need for better direct communication and meetings with members in North Manchester;
• The need for better communication overall, citing that members sometimes received information on crime in their area through social media or word of mouth rather than directly from GMP;
• How GMP communicated with victims of crime;
• What changes residents could expect to see in the next 12 months; and
• Call-handling and police response times.

The Statutory Deputy Leader stated that the Council had a strong working relationship with GMP and the work, lines of communication and regular briefings which had been in place since the Chief Superintendent took up his post were invaluable. He recognised some challenges but reiterated the positive collaboration between the Council and GMP, particularly in neighbourhood policing. 

The Chief Superintendent, GMP attended the meeting and stated that the force had strong communication methods with the Council but recognised that there may have been occasions where members did not feel fully informed. He recognised that it was important to understand different viewpoints, capacity and implications of decisions and explained that the Statutory Deputy Leader of the Council provided a quarterly forum for members, which he also attended, to give a broad overview of crime in the city and an opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns. He stated that GMP had committed to a neighbourhood policing structure consisting of an Inspector and Sergeant and that information on the responsible officers for each area was available online. He also updated the committee on the force’s IT system, which he said was addressing some previous limitations.

He recognised that the nature of policing in addition to retirement and seeking other development opportunities led to staff turnover, but more vacancies would be filled as student police officers finished their studies in April 2024.

In response to queries regarding ensuring consistency between departing and new officers, the Chief Superintendent, GMP acknowledged the importance of structured handovers and communication with members and residents. He also recognised that there was a significant period in which most police forces did not recruit but this was now resuming, and people were moving between forces.

It was also confirmed that neighbourhood patrol boundaries would be aligned with ward boundaries from April 2024.

The Chief Superintendent, GMP took responsibility for the decision to disband Student Safe officers on university campuses and recognised that the communication of this was not as effective as hoped. He explained that the public, including students, were not receiving value-for-money through the structure of Student Safe officers and that alternative delivery methods were assessed to provide a more tangible service. He stated that communications were issued in advance of Christmas 2023, and he endeavoured to review this in more detail.

The Chief Superintendent, GMP noted suggestions for dedicated ward plans and ward-specific email addresses and endeavoured to look into the possibility of devising ward plans in more detail. He stated, however, that it would be impractical to have a dedicated email address for each ward as a reporting tool as it could create issues with accountability. He reiterated that contact details for the responsible officers in each area was available on GMP’s website.

A member raised concern over a recent cancelled meeting between GMP officers and members in North Manchester and suggested improvements were required in direct communication between GMP and members. In response, the Chief Superintendent, GMP highlighted the need for the police, Council officers and members to work in partnership and that he would want Council officers to be involved in any meetings between the force and members.

In response to a query regarding why police officers were relocated or redeployed onto other projects, members were advised that resource was sometimes required elsewhere. He explained that officer abstraction rates were tracked through an internal app and that the City of Manchester division had the lowest abstraction rate in GMP.

The committee was informed that there was a common approach to communication across the city and that GMP would continue to work with the Council to learn and progress. The Chief Superintendent, GMP highlighted that requests for investigation updates were sometimes made by members or residents which were not appropriate to share. He stated that the force abided by the Victims’ Code of Practice when communicating with victims of crime and that there were force-wide performance measures in place regarding contact with victims.

In response to a question regarding the changes that residents could expect to see, the Chief Superintendent, GMP reiterated that there had been a recent increase in recruitment so residents would see and feel an increased police presence. He also stated that call response times would continue to be quick and that there would be improvements in street and road safety. It was highlighted that the force was responding to the needs of a growing future population.

Members were informed that GMP had the best average speed of answer times in the country. Calls to 999 were currently answered between 1-3 seconds and calls to 111 within 30 seconds. Police response times to 999 calls was currently around 10 minutes and responses to crimes and incidents classed as “grade 2” or appointments was around 1 hour. The Chief Superintendent, GMP stated that this was phenomenal progress and the Chair asked him to pass on the committee’s thanks to call handlers. 

The Statutory Deputy Leader commented that the police had experienced significant budget cuts in the previous 14 years, including a recruitment freeze and the reduction of over 2000 police officer in Greater Manchester which impacted the ability for neighbourhood policing. He acknowledged the improvements made by GMP, which he felt was testament to the partnership between the Council and the force and stated that it was reassuring that issues continued to be addressed.

Decision:

That the committee

1. note the report;
2. recognise and commend the improvements made by GMP;
3. continue to receive an annual update on crime and policing to better identify issues and areas for improvements going forwards;
4. encourages GMP to continue building consistent communication methods with elected members and residents; and
5. requests that the next annual crime and policing update includes statistics on crime levels in Manchester.