Chief constable makes riot policing compulsory for all cops

Chief Constable Stephen Watson has made riot training compulsory for all GMP cops. It follows an exodus of officers who were 'public order' trained.

Officers were increasingly reluctant to take the basic four-day training course because it meant that they were more likely to be called into action to deal with events such as protests on their rest days.

The new chief constable, installed in June last year, has insisted the force would be able to cope with a riot and he has now decided to make public order training compulsory, so all cops will be available in case of any civil disturbance.

The number of owed 'rest days' has rocketed since 2018 and now stands at 33,000, according to the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file cops. Some 900 officers are said to be owed ten or more rest days.

But Chief Constable Watson has moved to ensure the burden of policing major events, for instance riots, protests or major sporting events or political conferences, is now shared amongst all staff, not just those who have volunteered to take the basic four-day public order training course.

He told the M.E.N. the force was in a position to cope in the event of a riot. He said: "God forbid we have a riot. Nobody wants a riot but we are certainly in a strong position to cope with spontaneous outbreaks of public disorder. We are a large force. We are multi-faceted, fully-functional and we have good resource to deal with the unexpected.

"What there is is a continuing requirement to have a highly-trained cohort of people to deal with public order. And those numbers are not high enough in my view which means that those who are trained are more likely to have their rest days cancelled to deal with