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The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will be placed on special measures after inspectors expressed “serious cause for concern” when the force failed to record a fifth of all reported crimes.
Last week, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) criticized GMP for failing to report 80,000 crimes in the year as of June 30.
“Too often, Greater Manchester police defraud crime victims. The service provided to victims, particularly the most vulnerable, is a matter of grave concern. This is extremely disappointing given that HMICFRS has been urging the Greater Manchester Police to improve in this area since 2016, ”said HM Police Inspector Zoë Billingham.
Days after the report was released, GMP Police Chief Ian Hopkins announced that he had been fired due to illness. He said he had been suffering from labyrinthitis, an inner ear infection that affects balance, since late October.
Now GMP will move into what the inspection calls the “participation” stage of its monitoring process, as the Manchester Evening News first reported.
This is only entered if a force “is not responding to a concern or is failing to manage, mitigate or eradicate the concern,” according to inspection guidelines.
As a result, GMP can now receive support from external organizations such as the College of Police or the Council of Chiefs of National Police, managed by the inspection.
In a statement, the inspection said: “The level of scrutiny of the Greater Manchester Police has been raised and the force has been placed in the participation stage of the HMICFRS monitoring process. This is due to causes for concern raised in recent HMICFRS reports that have highlighted the poor service that the force provides to many crime victims. “
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has local oversight of GMP, replacing the police and crime commissioner in his position following his election in 2017.
In a joint statement Wednesday with Beverley Hughes, the deputy mayor for policing, Burnham said the inspection report raised “extremely serious issues.”
But they suggested that during the time of the inspection, the force had been under a lot of pressure policing the Covid-19 legislation and was understaffed, as many employees were ill, isolated or protected.
They also announced a dedicated hotline, backed by Victim Support, that will be activated on Monday to receive calls from “anyone who feels that the crime they are reporting has not been recorded (that is, they do not receive a crime reference number), or the GMP answer is not appropriate ”.
