Police in Greater Manchester are to be ordered to wear name badges on duty to improve 'customer service'.
All 8,100 officers along with 4,000 civilian staff will be ordered to wear the magnetic tags which will display their full name and rank. GMP is the first force in the country to require all officers to display their names, although others have trialled similar schemes for selected staff.
Plain clothes detectives will not be exempt from wearing the badges, which are similar to those worn by shop assistants and bank clerks.
But police working undercover or officers wearing riot gear will be allowed to take off the badges.
At the moment, officers are only publicly identified by a collar number woven into their jackets.
Criticism
The Metropolitan Police announced plans last month to require some officers to wear name badges in response to criticism that officers failed to display their ID numbers during last April's G20 demonstrations.
However, the badges will only have to be worn by about a quarter of officers at the Met who work in specific areas of policing.
GMP Chief Constable Peter Fahy, who has already started wearing his badge, has brought in the policy as part of a drive to improve the force's image with the public.
The cost of issuing the badges to every officer and staff member has been put at £21,000.
The force last year started giving officers lessons in courtesy after rising numbers of complaints about rudeness and incivility shown by police.
Mr Fahy, said the name badges would also help create a better relationship between the police and public.
He said: "It's part of our commitment to customer service and will make us more open and accountable.”
The new GMP name tags have been welcomed by most officers but some have expressed concerns.
Ridicule
One said: “A name badge could be regarded as a trophy for some people if they get involved in a tussle with an officer and it could then be used by someone who wants to pose as a police officer. Officers with unusual names might be left open to ridicule.”
The Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents 8,000 rank-and-file officers, has questioned whether the investment is appropriate as the force struggles with a £5m budget shortfall, with plans to axe 300 posts and 150 civilian jobs at risk.
Federation spokesman Inspector Ian Hanson said: “We have some reservations as to whether this is appropriate spending with the cutbacks the force is looking at making in police officer numbers.
“The federation has no issue with this in principle and neither do most police officers. It's a question of whether it is the appropriate time and I'm sure the public of Greater Manchester would rather use the money on another police officer than on badges. This is something we should be looking at in two or three year when we have the books balanced.”
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I think this idea is patently ridiculous!! To improve 'customer service'!!?........most of the police's customers are scrotes, scumbags and criminals!! At a time when GMP are short of money and having to make redundancies, this is yet an other politically correct piece of marketing spin no doubt designed by the socialist cretins in government!
Being an eternal optimist I wake every day believing things can't get worse, but unfortunately they do!!
In one word..............Pointless
nice to see GMP have got their priorities right. it seem they are more interested in providing name badges than catching criminals, at a time when the force is under immense scrutiny about it's lack of performance. i think Chief Constable Fahy is losing the plot.
Title should be "Cops to wear ID badges so that you know who failed to provide good service"
They need to change the culture in British policing not keep coming up with silly ideas that improve nothing.
Brilliant idea. Taking note of an officers number can sometimes be difficult and very awkward. We've had burlaries at work where the police have just failed to follow up anything at all and it's difficult to find out who came to see you. It's almost like they sometimes hide behind some anonymity. Some police officers can be very rude and arrogant and that'f from a prospective of someone reporting a crime. How dare you expect them to actually solve it? Once when I asked for an officers number, as it was covered, his attitude was such that I thought he was going to try and arrest me for having the nerve to question him??!!!
Obviously all officers are not like this but it's not fair on the good ones that the odd idiot lets them down.
The above post is just the usual dross on these boards. Not all customers of the police are 'scrotes, scumbags and criminals', normal members of the public and business people use their services when needed and it's good to be able to have a contact.
Well done.
No, no, no. no. no. no. No!
What is it with the Police these days? It isn't about 'customer service ' or 'reaching out to transgender communities' etc.
A business needs high customer service levels because it has competition and if a consumer doesn't like that of one company it can go to a competitor. The Police doesn't have competition.
All we want is if we report a crime such as a burglary the Police respond to it quickly. We know your number and will phone if needed. All we need to know is that you are there when we need you, which hopefully we won't.
How will knowing a copper's name help? He/she has their number on their epaulets - that is all we need to know.
In Dubai they are encoraging the public to report a crime QUICKLY so the Police can react QUICKLY and apprehend the criminal. The public there are being criticised for losing vital seconds. Here we are told if you leave it on show it WILL get stolen.
Name badges! Imagine a policeman called Humphrey, Tristram or Rupert telling a drunk bunch of football hooligans to stop throwing chairs through the pub window. Go figure.
Stop wasting so much time on image and get out and police.
I am just waiting for the first ones to appear on e Bay!
GMP you need to get your priorties right,You ve got cops who are nt interesting in investigating crime,your making cutbacks on the frontline whilst the sick,lame and lazy survive..and what do you do ??? spend money on name badges to go on a uniform that looks silly.....is someone in the Police Authority going to get a grip..
Just Fancy if someone has the name R Trotter.
i think it is a good idea..... When they are talking to you like you have just been scraped off there shoe you can reply yes Norman! :-)
This will wind GMP right up! hahahaha
Oh I dunno, I think police officers not identifying themselves / the public not being able to identify them if they have genuine cause for complaint is a valid concern.
Not so long ago, an officer turned up at my door (investigating something or other) and i asked to see his warrant card for identification.
Initially he wouldn't show me it (i'm pretty certain that there's a specific regulation stating they have to show their warrant card when requested). he just said 'i'm a police officer'. How do i know? think of all the uniforms that get nicked. I said i wanted to see some ID. He said 'i'm wearing a police stab vest' (!!!).
I've got a replica Barcelona shirt i play 5-a-side in. Does that mean i'll be lining up alongside Xavi, Iniesta and Messi against Valencia saturday week? No!!
I have one of these magnetic name badges at work, and it is constantly falling off even though I don't do anything too physical. So imagine a copper's chasing after someone in a rough estate, their name badge flies off, some kids pick it up, get on Facebook, find out details about the copper and suddenly he's getting bricks through his window at home. At least with a number on their collars, the police can't be identified too easily. A number can be traced internally, a fallen name badge is in anyone hands if...no when it falls off.
Just do what everybody else have always done, swap badges.
It really don't matter what they wear, the independant police complaints commision will always cover them up....I have two Pcso's near me in Hulme that is in someones house Morning. Noon. and Night, its either they are getting Police protection or they are drinking tea all day...
I laughed my socks off and nearly crashed the car when the news reader on the Radio this morning said that the undercover cops wouldn't wear them. :)
I was just looking at the picture. In proper police films they always have a gold police badge in a wallet that they flash and even in cowboy fils they have sherrif badges.
I remeber the day when I was living in Benchill and I would have this plastic wallet with a perpex fold on the inside and I would have a ploice badge from a police fancy dress kit or something and I would flash the badge at a rival gang memeber before sorting him out.
These days I would have to go to Staples or the Shoe Repair shop to get a small name badge with my name on it. It doesn't carry the same weight does it.
'Police, everybody freeze' as you raise up the dainty librarian style badge slightly above your left breast.
You know what will happen next though - the public will also be asked to wear them so we can respond in kind.
Better that they police focus on having guns strapped to their belts.
pcso's make me laugh, worse than useless
Fahy you clown, get a grip. THe cops dont sell or manufacture anything, therefore they dont have customers. what they do have are collar numbers which identify them. What if 2 cops have the same name like John Smith (doh) I see a problem when Johnny Scrote wants to complain but only has a name. Big Clue for you 'POLICE FORCE' not happy clappy whistle blowing down Deansgate but 'FORCE'. Time you resigned me thinks!!!!!
Audenshaw Bob: "A business needs high customer service levels because it has competition and if a consumer doesn't like that of one company it can go to a competitor. The Police doesn't have competition."
Maybe that's the problem.
Please note in my last comment that I was about five years old at the time. It wasn't as though I was twenty and posinng as a policeman. Just want to clear that one up.
Sorry this is just wrong wrong wrong, anyone can look you up on the electoral role and find where you live never mind giving people an easier way with name badges, also if you dont like the look of some one and just decide to pick a name out will cause too many cause problems, Dont forget criminals will just love this, WHO thinks up these ideas on god knows how much money. Years and years ago when i first left school and worked at Woolworths Piccadilly they introduced this and it was soon dropped because of false allegations being made. Coppers need to go to their union
This Inspector ...Norman Lawrence....Is he Norman Lawrence or Lawrence Norman....?
Mr Fahy is not the Chief Constable, he's simply a puppet. He hs no interest whatsoever in his own staff he just dances for the minority groups.
What more evidence do you need to prove Mr Fahy MUST NOT be allowed to continue any further?
It's a good idea.