Presentation of Chief Superintendent Paul Savill, GMP

This presentation provides an update following the HMICFRS Victim Services Inspection and the presentation delivered to the Committee’s meeting in March 2021.

The Committee received a presentation of Chief Superintendent Paul Savill, GMP, which provided an update following the HMICFRS Victim Services Inspection and the presentation delivered to the Committee’s meeting in March 2021.

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• Progress made in responding to the concerns raised in the HMICFRS Victim Services Inspection report of December 2020;
• An accelerated cause for concern raised in the most recent inspection relating to the timeliness of GMP’s response to incidents where the subject of the public contact might be at continuing risk of harm; and
• How GMP was going to address those causes of concern in a more sustainable way, including the Plan on a Page.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the detailed presentation and plans to strengthen the neighbourhood policing teams;
• That the Chief Officer team did not reflect the diversity of the city;
• Concern that people were not reporting crimes and that GMP was not receiving useful intelligence because of people struggling to get through on the 101 non-emergency police number;
• Domestic abuse training, including whether specific training would be provided on domestic abuse affecting BAME women;
• The triaging of domestic abuse cases; and
• Whether some of the concerns that Members had, such as about GMP’s IT system and the number of police officers, should be directed to the Mayor of Greater Manchester, rather than to GMP.

Chief Superintendent Savill recognised that there were currently no women in the Chief Officer team, although there were now two Assistant Chief Constables from BAME communities and he advised that he would feed back the Member’s concerns. He informed the Committee that the new Chief Constable was leading on GMP’s Inclusion and Diversity Strategy.  He supported the Member’s comment about the importance of people being able to get through on the 101 number, stating that he and Chief Superintendent Chris Gibson, who oversaw the Operational Communications Branch (OCB), provided mutual challenge to each other.  He advised that he welcomed feedback from Members on this and that Chief Superintendent Gibson could attend a future meeting, if the Committee wished. 

Chief Superintendent Savill assured the Committee that GMP’s domestic abuse training for officers would reflect the diverse communities within the city and informed Members that officers were provided with a toolkit of different support services so they could work with the victim to identify and refer them to a service which met their needs.  He advised that the triaging of domestic abuse cases was subject to internal scrutiny and he outlined how cases were assessed and responded to, using the Domestic Abuse Safeguarding scores.

Chief Superintendent Savill explained that there were three parts to GMP’s iOPS (Integrated Operational Policing System) IT system and that the part which was of concern was PoliceWorks.  He advised Members that the Chief Constable had commissioned an external review of PoliceWorks and the outcome of this review was expected soon.  The Community Safety Lead reported that all Greater Manchester local authorities regularly met with GMP colleagues and the Mayor’s office and received regular updates about iOPS.

The Chair advised that some of the Committee’s concerns should be discussed with the Mayor of Greater Manchester or the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire, rather than GMP, to which the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods agreed.  The Chair reported that he would work with the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods to try to get the Mayor or Deputy Mayor to attend a future meeting.  A Member suggested that they liaise with their counterparts in other local authorities regarding this.

The Chair thanked Chief Superintendent Savill and his officers for their work.

Decision

That the Chair will work with the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods to invite the Mayor or Deputy Mayor to attend a future meeting.