Chief Constable Stephen Watson has made riot training compulsory for all GMP cops. It follows an exodus of officers who were 'public order' trained.
Officers were increasingly reluctant to take the basic four-day training course because it meant that they were more likely to be called into action to deal with events such as protests on their rest days.
The new chief constable, installed in June last year, has insisted the force would be able to cope with a riot and he has now decided to make public order training compulsory, so all cops will be available in case of any civil disturbance.
The number of owed 'rest days' has rocketed since 2018 and now stands at 33,000, according to the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file cops. Some 900 officers are said to be owed ten or more rest days.
But Chief Constable Watson has moved to ensure the burden of policing major events, for instance riots, protests or major sporting events or political conferences, is now shared amongst all staff, not just those who have volunteered to take the basic four-day public order training course.
He told the M.E.N. the force was in a position to cope in the event of a riot. He said: "God forbid we have a riot. Nobody wants a riot but we are certainly in a strong position to cope with spontaneous outbreaks of public disorder. We are a large force. We are multi-faceted, fully-functional and we have good resource to deal with the unexpected.
"What there is is a continuing requirement to have a highly-trained cohort of people to deal with public order. And those numbers are not high enough in my view which means that those who are trained are more likely to have their rest days cancelled to deal with protest and the like than not.
"Therefore we get into a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that, if you do it your work-life balance is more likely to be adversely affected and therefore fewer people are volunteering to do it.
"Well we're going to make it easier for people in the sense that I'm removing the element of choice. My view is that if you're a police officer, you are trained to perform these duties. And everybody will be performing these duties going forward, which will mean that the impact on individuals will be less and the force attracts and retains a higher capability."
He added: "For me, it's important if you are a police officer you do the things that police officers need to do."
Greater Manchester Police Federation chairman Lee Broadbent said: "Presently, we feel the delivery of the various change programmes running in the force is unsustainable and heavily reliant on the use of overtime and cancelation of rest days. It’s our belief that current day to day demand coupled with the large number of events GMP are required to police outstrips our available resources."
He added: "We may have concerns as to the pace of its delivery and the acute pressure this places upon us but many hope the pressures are short lived and more sustainable practices will follow.
“Our membership are fully aligned with the chief’s vision to reawaken the giant that is GMP. Our members want to be a visible presence in our communities and deterrent/consequence to those who believe our laws do not apply to them.
“Policing on the whole is facing acute recruitment and retention issues and GMP are no different."
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