Greater Manchester Police has failed to improve, watchdog says

Greater Manchester Police has "failed to make significant improvements" in its response to vulnerable victims of crime, a watchdog has said.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said the force was warned to improve in 2017, but it had "still not made sufficient progress".

HMIC's Andy Cooke said he was now "concerned about public safety".

Chief Constable Stephen Watson said he was "truly sorry" but added the force was "making progress in key areas".

In 2017, HMIC found GMP was failing to respond appropriately to vulnerable people, such as domestic abuse victims, and failing to attend incidents within an appropriate timescale.

It subsequently found the force was still deficient in those areas in 2019 and 2020.

A spokesman said a further recent inspection had found the force had again failed to make the expected improvements.

Mr Cooke, the Inspector of Constabulary, said the force had "a critical duty to keep the public safe and vulnerable people deserve the very best service".

"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," he said.

"We told GMP 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 added that HMIC would "be closely monitoring the force's performance to make sure that public safety comes first".

Mr Watson, who took up his role in May, said the findings "describe a quality of service which is not yet where we want it to be and which... is far from what the people of Greater Manchester deserve".

"For this simple fact I humbly apologise," he said.

"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."

He added that while the force was "making progress in key areas, I fully accept that we need to move quickly to address the long-term, fundamental and systemic problems driving these failings".

The force has recently appointed a new leadership team and is looking to increase the numbers of call handlers.

Mr Watson previously said he would quit if the force was not in a "demonstrably better place" within two years.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who is responsible for the governance and accountability of GMP, said the force had been "openly acknowledging" its failures "for a long time".

He told BBC Radio Manchester the findings related to the period between June and September, when many staff had been forced to self-isolate after receiving alerts from the NHS Covid-19 app.

He said GMP had launched a plan of improvements in early September, which was "taking effect now".

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