Chief Constable sees 'green shoots' of recovery as GMP battles to come out of special measures

Chief Constable Stephen Watson has trumpeted major improvements in the performance of Greater Manchester Police as part of a huge effort to lift the force out of special measures.

He spoke to the media more than a year after he was installed as chief constable, replacing predecessor Ian Hopkins who was f orced out in December 2020 after a damning policing inspectorate report which revealed major failings including that GMP had failed to record an estimated 80,000 crimes in a year.

Chief Constable Watson, who officially started as the chief on June 1 last year, has replaced almost all of his senior leadership team and now has ten new chief superintendents in charge of each district across the force. It is part of a 'back to basics' drive to turn around the failing force, which remains in special measures.

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The force has halved the time it takes to answer the most serious 999 calls, which last month was 29 seconds on average compared to 66 seconds in June 2021 following a £1m investment in call-handling, including 40 new call handlers. In June it was taking the force an average of ten minutes and 12 seconds to respond to the most serious 'grade 1' calls, well below the 15 minute target, while the average time to respond to 'grade 2 call was just under the 60 minute target, according to the force. The 'grade 2' response time was almost 21 hours in May 2021, said GMP.

The number of arrests has almost doubled to 4.527 in May this year compared to 2,881 in May 2021, prompting GMP to re-open its custody suite in Bolton and it plans to do the same at Longsight police station. It has recruited an extra 43 custody sergeants. While GMP was