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.”
Showing comments 26 to 50 and replies | View All
Stevedore, Quayside (16/01/2010 at 13:59)
The UK imprisons more people per capita than any other European country so I don't see sending people to prison as being the sole solution in the fight against crime.
Wodjah, Old Trafford (16/01/2010 at 14:01)
When in Rome (16/01/2010 at 14:06)
MisterG, Bolton (16/01/2010 at 14:08)
'Therealworld'...... very interesting points there.... oh, and did you know that the gay pride march counts as a 'tour of duty', so every cop walking in that march is being paid? If the march is on a 'day off', then the officer is entitled to a day of in lieu??? hmmmmm!
PW, Manchester (16/01/2010 at 14:12)
E.g. a thug serving 4 months of a paltry 16 month sentence for booting someone for all intents and purposes to death, in the pursuit of amusement. Then compare with that with a 6 year sentence for a £250k insurance fraud by that canoe couple. The life of an innocent victim is worth more than £250k, and the couple have already experienced their 'deterrent effect' by being caught and publicly shamed. They won't get insurance again, and the industry will see to that without the help of the law. But where is the 'deterrent effect' of an already pitifully short sentence truncated to 4 months for attempted murder? Answer: it doesn't exist.
Are you saying our all-knowing and 'competent' leaders have it right? I know you like to home in on emotive talk and pick it to bits. My opinion for lengths of sentences for sickening violence is to think of a high number, double it and add 5 years for good measure. Please attempt to break that down into some logical well thought-out plan that fits into an acceptable theoretical model. And while you're at it, please explain why you would wish to do so.
Black Flag (16/01/2010 at 14:38)
No, but neither do you.
Jimmy O'Freelunch, tory land (16/01/2010 at 15:00)
The Lone Ranger (16/01/2010 at 15:03)
But I digress, is it a coincidence that the force(ha ha ha) is running an operation useing many officers to flood areas (wonder if I ever see them on my division?) to try to reduce the number of burglaries for a 3 month period (90 days). Whilst I accept that is a good idea in principle, burglaries do need reducing, to my cynical head this is a knee jerk reaction to the force being in the mire! After the 90 days is up, the figures should be better, the force can say, hey look we're really good now, but what happens after that? This operation alone will be costing thousands, but at the end of the day it's just another piece of sticking plaster, and not a quality waterproof one at that!
Diggler (16/01/2010 at 15:03)
Ron, Gorton (16/01/2010 at 15:44)
Well maybe many do go to prison and still come out and commit crime but while they are in there for six months they aren't burglaring my house or raping old ladies so the streets are safer.
It is simple. We have laws that are punishable by sentence so if only ten people break those laws then only ten go to prison. 100,000 break them then 1000 go to prison.
It says more about the society that we now have here in this country if crime is always on the up.
It is not until you go abroad that you realise that we have a lot of bad people in this country.
Petty theft and burglary is so rife that people just shrug their shoulders now as it is part of the norm. We havbe come to accept it as the norm and that is wrong.
I am all for a strong hardline police force but they have their hands tied by all the guff that the government puts on them.
They spend too much time 'trying to reach out to minorities'. They are a police FRCE not an extension of social services.
Maybe we have a two layered force, one is your local bobbies for minor things, then we have hardline one's for keeping the peace.
As the Chinese police motto says'
To protect, to punish, to enslave.
abbott71, bolton (16/01/2010 at 16:10)
I have to say that the failure to investigate crime is a sorry state of affairs.
GMP are ridding themselves of Good Officers for the sake of being seen to be PC..... The top ranks need to wake up and smell the coffee before its too late for THEM!!!!
I think more cops like this link are required......http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1180383_cop_forced_to_quit_for_hitting_car_thief
perhaps you d have no problems catching baddies
Of Denton, Tameside (16/01/2010 at 16:22)
andrew (16/01/2010 at 16:35)
The courts answer to detering domestic burglaries, stick them on a 2100 - 0700 tagged curfew so they are free to go and screw peoples houses when they are out at work during the day!
Easy "cop" out to blame the cops, i'd love it if people could see the hard work that most cops put into solving such crimes, CSIU, the paperwork, Forensics for the court to fire them straight back out on the street !
Save your money looking into the cops, build more prisons and get a magistrate who wants to rid the streets of such vermin and not got his mind set on making the afternjoon golf course for a steady 18 !
TISS (16/01/2010 at 16:39)
there needs to be tougher sentencing,thats the only thing thats needed,and just for the record my home was broken into and it the police were there within two hours,they were at my house for a while checking and taking statements and even made me a drink,so I cant say I was treated badly and I dont live in a rich area,so dont keep blaming the police for everything,the sentence needs to fit the crime and very rarely does,tha law has to be changed and ,judges need to be tougher,they would if it were thier house or that of thier friends
S G (16/01/2010 at 17:13)
Without getting too side-tracked the police should be focusing on solving the problem rather than moving the problems.
MPs gravy train, UK (16/01/2010 at 17:31)
And when locked up, do something to get them to kick habits. Stop drugs being smuggled into prison. Stop visitors to prison if needs be. Keep them locked up for their full sentence. None of the soft stuff.
Lets stop spending more and more money on GMP and lets spend it on more prison beds and more rehabilitation. Eventually it can be paid for by a reduction in GMP police budgets. We don't need to spend £550m a year at GMP if we sort out more of the 5% group.
Is It Me? (16/01/2010 at 18:11)
Maynard Kitchener Lampwick, Hulme. (16/01/2010 at 18:38)
They need to get their act together and do proper policing, they could have 90 years to get it right, but they won't. to many non interested coppers and bent ones around these days...
Bring back James Anderton..........................
Ed from Davyhulme, Manchester (16/01/2010 at 18:48)
Concerned Mancunian, Manchester (16/01/2010 at 19:10)
I find it disturbing that this appears to be a leaked report..as of Friday this week there was no formal announcement from the bosses who "run" GMP...not a thing...but there have been plenty of rumours that the Home Office are going to step in and Fahy is in trouble.....if they can`t be honest with their own staff the public of Greater Manchester have no chance......i keep saying it but by moving Detectives from the HQ CID back onto Division serving the community directly investiagting assaults, burglary, robbery and domestic violence a real difference could be made. Remove uniform offices from the force intelligence bureau and the Counter Terrorist Unit back into uniform.
Put more officers on the coal face and I guarantee crime will reduce and detections will increase.
This current command team in GMP, Fahy`s gang from the shire forces, have no idea how to run a large metropolitan force. Moral has plummeted since he took over. He is new labour policing = all spin and no substance. The entire command team should be removed. Every Chief Supt in charge of an area/ Division should agree to remain in that post for a minium of 5 years . There is no continuity. All bosses above Chief Inspector are in it for themselves - promotion, promotion, promotion. They don't care about their staff or the community they serve.
But to all you out there remeber that the vast majority of frontline uniform cops and detectives you meet are really trying their best against the odds and an overwhelming demand from the public. And lets not forget Fahy is reducing GMP cops by 300 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dont be fooled by moving "office" bound cops onto the frontline to make up for this loss...It won't happen.
Jason Taylor (16/01/2010 at 19:15)
Jetstar, Manchest`oh ! (16/01/2010 at 19:36)
Heywood Red , heywood (16/01/2010 at 19:55)
When in Rome (16/01/2010 at 20:54)
PAH , Manchester (16/01/2010 at 20:58)