Public safety put at risk by failings at Greater Manchester Police, inspection finds

Crisis-hit force attends under a third of incidents within the one-hour timescale it has set, watchdog discovers

The report found that in some cases victims wait for over a week (Getty/iStock)

Failings at England’s second largest police force are putting the public at risk, a scathing new report has warned.

Greater Manchester Police has left vulnerable victims in danger by not responding to calls within the one-hour timescale it has set, an assessment by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found.

“The force attends under a third of incidents that should be responded to within an hour,” the watchdog said. “Some victims wait for several days, in some cases over a week, and in most cases, the force doesn’t contact the victim to explain that there is a delay.”

Backlogs of some 2,700 crimes have been allowed to build up, inspectors found during an assessment this month.

“We are concerned about public safety in Greater Manchester,” the report published on Thursday added.

The verdict comes 10 months after Greater Manchester Police was placed in special measures following another excoriating report which found a quarter of violent crimes reported to the force were going unrecorded.

That itself came three years after the 7,000-officer force was told to improve by the inspectorate amid early concerns about backlogs.

Andy Cooke, the inspector of constabulary who led the new review, said: “Whilst accepting the very recent positive approach to improving the performance of the force, I am deeply concerned that GMP has consistently failed to make significant improvements in how it responds to vulnerable victims of crime.

“We told Greater Manchester Police to make these improvements in 2017 yet it has still not made sufficient progress. It has now reached the point where we are concerned about public safety in Greater Manchester.”

He issued a rarely used “accelerated concern” notice – a summary of outline findings immediately released to the public to highlight potential risks to safety.

It means a more detailed – and likely more damning – report will be published this year.

Speaking shortly after the findings were released on Thursday morning, the force’s chief constable Stephen Watson – who only took the top job in May – admitted he recognised the findings.

He said: “These describe a quality of service which is not yet where we want it to be and which I know is far from what the people of Greater Manchester deserve.

“For this simple fact I humbly apologise. I am truly sorry for every time we have not met the needs of victims of crime.

“I can assure you that our top priority is to keep people safe.”

But said the problems were “deep-rooted,” adding: “I have overseen the most drastic and wide-ranging senior officer recruitment process ever undertaken in GMP and we have a new leadership team in place that will accelerate change.”

Mr Watson has previously vowed to quit if Greater Manchester Police was not “demonstrably better” within two years.

Just this month he blamed a “failure of senior leadership” for failing to turn around the crisis-hit force after alarms were raised at the 2017 inspection.

He pledged to investigate every crime, pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry, and open more cell capacity.