GMP's 90-day deadline to improve

Exclusive: Neal Keeling

January 16, 2010

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Greater Manchester Police has given itself a 90-day deadline to improve.

GOVERNMENT officials are concerned at the level of crime in Greater Manchester and the ability of police to detect it.

Now Greater Manchester Police has given itself a 90-day deadline to improve.

If they don't then the Home Office could be forced to intervene.

As we reported previously, the force has a higher rate of burglary, robbery, and car crime than five other similar English forces.

The MEN has learned that GMP is 'on the radar' of the Police Performance Steering Group, which includes Home Office officials, members of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, (HMIC) and the Association of Police Authorities.

This means that over a period of time its performance has been recognised by the Home Office as being not good enough.

The force is currently being monitored by the Home Office and has been on and off for five years – most recently from March last year.

They are having to regularly report to the government on what they are doing and whether there is any sign of improvement.

Just before Christmas, following the November meeting of the steering group, Chief Constable Peter Fahy and his deputy Simon Byrne imposed the 90-day action plan.

It includes:

Getting more officers on the street.

Cutting bureaucracy.

Targeting the worst performing force divisions with the aim of getting them to rise three places up national league tables.

Motivating officers to do their job and detect burglary, car crime, and anti-social behaviour.

The chief and his deputy will get daily progress reports.

After the 90 days the HMIC will assess the force again and decide whether to let it continue or recommend that the Home Office intervenes with support.

Deputy Chief Constable Byrne, said: “We want to put more impetus into what we are already doing.

“It is about understanding some of the reasons why the force is not performing as well as we want it to and putting more push into those initiatives.

“We are not trying to make excuses because the Chief Constable and I believe that crime in Greater Manchester is too high, anti-social behaviour is too high, and confidence levels need to improve.

“But Manchester is one of the largest cities and covers a huge conurbation. It has things that generate crime – unemployment, some of the types of housing – there are reasons that make it more vulnerable to crime.

Organised crime

“Some things work well in GMP – we are good at tackling serious organised crime and have some of the safest roads in the country but on the day to day stuff – burglary, robbery, we definitely need to improve.

Mr Byrne added: “While this scrutinizing is going on it is a distraction. We are having to repeatedly report to London to show them that we have a plan, it is good, and we are making progress.”

As part of the 90-day plan the force's successful crackdown on burglary – Operation Storm will be extended to car crime.

The force plans to civilianise certain roles to get more police on the beat and to introduce changes to improve local policing.

Mr Byrne said: “It was not a knee-jerk reaction to the November steering group meeting. We just got to the point where we didn't want this as a distraction to our organisation.

“The good thing is we are finding and fixing things to improve the service. The more energy we can apply to that the better.”

“It's not a flash in the pan it is about getting the day to day policing better faster.

“There has been sensible decisions made in the past to invest heavily in tackling organised crime and that has made the streets safer.

“We are not complacent about that, but in a finite budget, if you move people, you create a gap – we are readjusting our position.”

Commenting on bureaucracy created by the government and GMP in the last five years, he said: “We have huge levels of checking, which is not efficient, which has created a culture generally where people are afraid to innovate.”

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RedRef, Manchester (16/01/2010 at 07:03)

What a MISLEADING headline. Then what happens? The force is shutdown. Get a LIFE.

Knowsleyman, Paphos (16/01/2010 at 07:16)

The general public of Greater Manchester would never have thought that their Police force could be considered as not good enough would they?

Athertonian (16/01/2010 at 07:19)

"We are not trying to make excuses ... But Manchester is one of the largest cities and covers a huge conurbation. "

What? Bigger than London or West Midlands? Not. Problems categorically different from Merseyside or Tyneside? Not really. Excuses, Deputy Chief Constable?

The problem with GMP is exactly this basic, ingrained "Well what do you expect?" attitude, which, from the above quote, obviously runs from the top down.

If the police really do see "the huge conurbation" as the root of the problem, split it up into its natural contituencies. Lancashire Constabulary is excellent, according to the Home Office's criteria.

Angie33 , Manchester (16/01/2010 at 07:48)

Having considered the problems with another local service provider for years,from the perspective of the public,in a nutshell, its clear to me what the main obstructions were.The lunatics took over the asylum many years ago,and before the Labour gov.The more the workers can fob off the public and deter them from complaining-as in make sure complaints never reach managers, mainly by bullying or threatening members of the public who dare to complain,the more they are prized,rewarded and promoted.I once managed to get to the top of a service and the manager had to ask me where the estate was.He arrived soon after,purple faced and raging that he had been disturbed and that the MP and local paper had stepped in.Now to partnerships.Imagine all these services,who operate in the same fashion coming together.For instance,cleansing,police,housing,youth services ,social services etc coming together in partnerships.So much more scope to fob people off.They get more desperate and fobbing off/bullying of the public and people who complain increases.Now they are in a place where people dont complain except in news forums etc.The public are not willing to be fobbed off and insulted and bullied.The odd brave person goes ahead,an example is the woman this week insulted by binmen.She is then insulted further on the comments on the story.Who would put themselves up for that?Its another deterrent to anyone else who might think of complaining.The result is service providers talking amongst themselves at their many meetings about what a marvellous job they do and patting themselves on the back for a job well done,as in moving further and further away from public opinion.Its a shame for the workers as this makes job satisfaction/ impossible.It also makes of a whole culture of people in denial.When the **** hits the fan,they are then victims of this or that.The example of the binmen is a workforce who have been managing themselves for years.They are not alone in this.If there are any exceptions to this rule and the bullying of the public by public servants Ive not seen them.Recently in the doctors surgury ,with a small baby asleep in a pushchair the receptionist came around to the small waiting area to blast the counter with Pledge polish.When I protested she blasted me with'Ive got to do my job!' Its seems these days that doing certain jobs means a loss of any humanity and we can see it in action at all times.There are crimes to be dealt with by the police service but there are many crimes against humanity commited by people working in public services that need to be addressed first or things can only get worse.The reaction of our leaders/politicians to the expenses scanal was a good example.Overall it was 'How dare you!

radiojaney, Salford (16/01/2010 at 08:43)

I was burgled in July and since then have heard nothing at all from the police . no updates nthing
i can only conclude that's what they have done to catch the culprits NOTHING
USELESS

moaning bugger, reddish (16/01/2010 at 08:56)

why do they keep saying crime is going down then?

Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (16/01/2010 at 08:56)

""The force is currently being monitored by the Home Office""

The Home Office could do with some monitoring. The Home Office is responsible for much of the bureaucracy increase of the past few years - neighbourhood policing charter, surgeries, surveys, street briefings and other such shallow soundbites and ways of "talking a good job".
Then we have had Home Office Ministers whose conduct has bordered on the criminal in their application for expenses. Immigration fiascos after immigration fiascos etc etc
The huge levels of "checking" are as a direct result of central government "beancounting" - this Government has "beancounted" every public service to try to make themselves look good. A huge swathe of public sector jobs involve compiling and looking at graphs, charts and statistics

If you thought the cops were bad - you dont want the Home Office running the show!

moaning bugger, reddish (16/01/2010 at 08:56)

why do they keep telling us crime is going down then?

Ron, Gorton (16/01/2010 at 09:29)

What do we have in this country? Police leaflets and stickers stating 'If you leave it on show it WILL be stolen'.

Report a burglary and they turn up four days later, if at all. More keen on marching at Pride and having a stall at the transgender gathering last year or dropping in leaflets to people apologising for arresting fellow members of their community on anti terror suspicions.

In Dubai they are currently running a campaign very strongly urging people to report a crime as soon as it happens. They say the longer you delay the less chance they have apprehending the perpetrators. Don't lose vital seconds as they might be crucial. That is policing.

Here, you report a burglary and nobody shows up. This is not policing.

mp. (16/01/2010 at 09:32)

They should start by placing decoy (camera) cars and CCTV in all car crime blackspots.

Malcolm Amersham (16/01/2010 at 09:45)

Who is telling lies?. It was not many weeks ago we read and heard in the media that Crime in Manchester was down.Perhaps GMP are too nusy chasing crimals to get their figures right.

Mark,Radcliffe. (16/01/2010 at 09:48)

Mr Byrne your Mananagement mindset,and perhaps those of the 'Senior Management Team' are reflected in two comments."We are not trying to make excuses..But Manchester is one of the Largest Cities".Any statement with the word 'but' in it,is always going to be an excuse.Secondly,"While this scrutinizing is going on,it is a distraction"..No Mr Byrne,its being held accountable for not being able to perform to an expectable standard...It would seem that the inability to perform permeates down,so perhaps to improve overall morale and performance the Senior Management Team should be replaced.

Supreme Being, Manchester. (16/01/2010 at 10:58)

If the decision was made in November, why only in the news now?

Ivor Rash, Oldham (16/01/2010 at 10:59)

I worked for GMP for 13 years & with burglary detection rates at 3%, I'm not surprised at their poor rating. The force is full of good individuals who are hard working and conscientious. Unfortunately, their efforts are hampered by too much bureaucracy, with a management system that is over concerned with PR, being politically correct & diversity. Targets set by the government, by politicians who have no concept regarding law & order on the front line, or how ordinary people live, just makes the job more difficult than it needs to be.

roykeane, i always wanted to play for city (not!) (16/01/2010 at 11:05)

the GMP is a joke. full of city fans hahahahahahaha

Ace Riley, outsidethebox (16/01/2010 at 11:09)

Why has it taken all these years for a government to realise that policing isnt working in the uk,the answer to this questionis they have been beleiving their own spin.The people of britain have been telling the government that policing in the uk is useless and dosnt work,Along with our juditial system that dosnt bwork either,its time to re-think our juditial system as well as our policing.

Rammylad (16/01/2010 at 11:12)

This is shocking, as these are just the crimes that are recorded and does not include all of the crimes we try to report but find ourselves banging our heads against a wall being told to deal with it ourselves. How much worse would it be if they included those crimes or indeed if they investigated public transport jumping red lights.

theface, City Centre (16/01/2010 at 11:28)

The government wants to look at itself in the way that it's sentencing rules no longer allow judges to pass a decent sentence for key crimes such as burglary. When the police do detect a crime such as burglary they are very often let down by soft sentencing by the courts. Prolific offenders have no deterrent to stop committing crime and so continue to do so when they have finished their pathetic sentence.

doubting thomas (16/01/2010 at 12:25)

As a serving GMP Officer, the above comes as no surprise. I work on one of the inner city divisions and at the time of writing, the Division is in the process of reducing the number of "response officers" as they apparently have too many !!!!
As a result, this will reduce the number of Officers on the street responding to incidents, reported by the Communities of this particular area. That clearly does that fit in with the terms of the proposed 90 day action plan mentioned above.
There are also numerous Officers whose role is to spend all day sat on their shiny behinds doing "administrative" type roles at the Divisional headquarters, which I try to avoid at all costs, as every time I enter the building, I feel my blood pressure begin to boil over !!!!
There has also been an article in the media this week which suggests that there will be a reduction in bureacracy, thereby freeing up Officers to put back on the frontline. I have to say that I am also sceptical about this announcement, as having been a Police Officer in GMP force for many years (and still working the frontline), I have heard this numerous times before and am still waiting to see any improvements.

Ace Riley, outsidethebox (16/01/2010 at 12:48)

If the police want to get back to real policing they need to stop employing "University graduates" i knew quite a few police officers who were asked to do a university degree so that they could get higher up the police ladder?.Policing isnt about how many degrees you have or how clever you are,its about people and knowing what they want,not about experiments on what politicians think the modern police should be doing...LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE. not politicians they are just donkeys following each other to nowhere.Get rid of the redtape and get rid of the human rights act and then at least were halfway to freeing our police to do what the people want them to do (control crime).

PW, Manchester (16/01/2010 at 13:05)

I think the answer is to employ more punishments with real deterrent effect. Long sentences that will get the liberalists squealing with horror. Then fairly quickly we will kill off this revolving door where criminals are caught, put back on the streets and they offend again and re-appear in the system. But that's down to this government. I firmly believe that any under-performance by the Police is caused by them trying to do a difficult job with one hand tied behind their backs.

Black Flag (16/01/2010 at 13:14)

PW, interesting theory, but one that is undermined by the fact that average sentences have been steadily increasing.

Ace Riley, outsidethebox (16/01/2010 at 13:25)

PW, Manchester
You are so right,The problem starts at school with kids having no respect for law or the police.Its time to re-introduce corporal punishment and the birch for the criminals and get rid of the human right looney lefty laws.like the story i read today of the somalian who hid a police killer and hes been allowed to stay in britain? this sort of madness that underminds our law and order.The criminals are queing up to get into britain (where crime is easy) and the police and legal system are useless to stop crime.

TheRealWorld (16/01/2010 at 13:33)

The problem is this...

Many years of getting "DIVERSITY" issues right, overstaffing, overspending and overworrying about diversity. None stop training and courses for officers about not offending minorities, hundreds of thousands spent on courses about trans gender staff for officers who have no contact with any, whole floors of officers, sergeants, inspectors, chiefs, superintendants earning MILLIONS at headquarters but not doing any police work - just making up problems to justify their own existance.
Why are there no officers walking the council estates accross the region but have a gay pride march and there are hundreds?

Do you know, police training does not cover how to catch criminals? It does not tell you anything about patrolling streets, forensic recovery, scene preservation or anything. But there is week after week after week of how not to offend anyone, risk assessing, ethnic minorities, gay/trans communities.

We have a force of officers petrified to do anything at all and the criminals are loving it.

Growler (16/01/2010 at 13:51)

Get the so called police officers who are hiding away in offices working 7-3 back on the street and replace them with civilians on half the pay. stop re-rostering rest days instead of paying overtime. Involve PCSO's more allow them to go to neg line crimes, take statements etc. The bottom line is that GMP are the second biggest police force in the uk. Does it have the same amount of officers/money to spend as the MET, no it does not. How can you compare Greater Manchester to Yorkshire/Derbyshire/Lancs the sleepy hollow forces when we've got Collyhurst, Longsight, Moss-side, Glodwick, Bench Hill, to name but a few. Good Luck GMP.

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