Jane Brophy, Lib Dems GM Mayoral Candidate, has uncovered astonishing figures about the GMP’s ability to investigate crime in Greater Manchester.
The force failed to follow up almost half (45%) of all crimes reported in 2016. A whopping 57% of burglaries were not investigated, along with more than three quarters of pickpocketing and street thefts.
70% of bicycle thefts were also not followed up.
Jane obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. She commented:
Visible policing has all but disappeared apart from Manchester city centre and our town centres, leaving many communities feeling unsafe. If I become Mayor I will work to ensure frontline policing is improved to restore people’s faith in the police.
The elected Greater Manchester Mayor will take on the functions of the current interim Mayor and GM Police & Crime Commissioner, former Labour MP Tony Lloyd. This entails setting priorities for GMP in how they tackle crime.
Jane Brophy highlighted the fact that figures for the current year show that 42% of all recorded crimes for the first few months of 2017 were not investigated, greater than the percentage in 2014.
Jane says:
Overall Greater Manchester Police are doing a good job at tackling serious crime, but there seems to be widespread failure to record and investigate all crimes properly.
As Mayor, Jane will be responsible for setting GMP’s crime priorities, as well as working with GMP on successful preventative approaches to reducing crime by working with local communities.
Police usually do not follow up crimes if there is no clue as to who the offender is. If there is a clue ie, witness, DNA. Fingerprints, video etc then they have a lead. I would like to know how you propose to increase the follow up of ” no lead crime”. Crystal Ball ? Divine intervention ? I await your reply.
The main problem for the Police is not the fact that they fail to respond, but the fact that there is just not enough of them to respond. This is down to the unreasonable closure of Police Stations in the communities that need the reassurance of a police presence. The cut backs in this country are destroying the police’s ability to uphold the law. This means that minor law breaking, i.e. irresponsible parking, using mobile phones, smoking etc while driving are being ignored by police (who are probably responding to more urgent calls and driving past the offenders) makes people complacent so they then begin to think they are above the law.
The Police should not feel they have to prove themselves to meet deadlines, but they should feel supported. There should be more of them to help them prioritise crimes and the local Police Stations should be re-introduced and effectively manned.