GMP is ‘definitely on their way’ to being up-to-standard, the policing minister has said on a visit to Manchester today. The force has repeatedly been blasted by inspectors for its failings, leading to it being put in special measures in December 2020 .
Kit Malthouse said he was ‘happy with progress thus far’, believing the ‘basics now seem to be getting there on a daily basis’. He was speaking inside a Blackley cannabis farm which GMP officers had raided that morning.
Among the shards of glass, ripped-up wiring, and offcuts of tubing used to cultivate the 100 cannabis plants inside the modest semi-detached home, he was shown the haul by detectives and Chief Constable, Stephen Watson. The property would generate between £80-and-£100,000 in profits for the criminals that established it — next door to a well-kept family home and garden.
Now, following the busts of the ‘sophisticated’ operation, both Mr Malthouse and Watson told the Manchester Evening News that the force is slowly re-building its reputation — but the work was not done yet. The government minister said: “They're definitely on their way. I think that the Chief will be the first to admit there is work still to do.
“But the basics now seem to be getting there on a daily basis, right, which is really good to see. And the crime numbers, I think, will start to turn as a result. So I'm happy with progress thus far.”
In terms of more ‘sophisticated’ work by the force, including targeting organised crime, Mr Malthouse believed GMP’s inclusion into a £145 million scheme to tackle county lines crime — along with cops in three other cities — is a sign of better things to come. He said: “They will sit alongside Merseyside, West Midlands and London as a key part, now, of that really strong and successful campaign to drive county lines out of England and Wales.
"I would only be doing that investment if I thought the force was able to deliver and I've certainly seen this morning that they can.” Mr Watson, in post for almost a year now, was bullish when he asked how he thought the force would fare in the coming months. When he joined GMP, he said he would leave after two years if it had not improved.
He said: “There's no subjectivity around this, we either arrest more people or we don't, we either pick up the phone more quickly, or we don't, we either record crime, or we don't. And across all of those promises, you can see that the numbers are tracking up.
“I'm entirely confident that over the coming 12 months, the force will emerge from the current so-called Special Measures regime, I think you will see those numbers that are tracking up in the way that I've described continues.”
