Residents have claimed that police officers are getting out of their cars for a photograph and immediately leaving the area - before telling social media they actually patrolled it.
Last week, the Manchester Evening News reported that Stockport residents were beginning to get a sense of deja vu after police shared images of officers 'on patrol' along the same stretch of Rae Street 10 times since the start of 2022. While some Facebook users saw the funny side, others were critical.
Now, Coun Sheila Bailey says she has received complaints from residents who claim to have seen officers posing for a photograph before swiftly disappearing, on Rae Street as well as about half a dozen others in Edgeley. In an email seen by the M.E.N. , the Labour member on Stockport Council wrote to Greater Manchester Police chief constable Stephen Watson, sharing the concerns.
In the email, she quoted one resident who said: "We have noticed several times police cars and unmarked cars pull up, get out and the officers take a couple of photos by the shops [or] on the corner near the doctors and less than a minute later get back into the car and drive away. Later these pictures are added to Facebook as part of Operation Valiant - and they say they have been patrolling the area but actually they have just taken a photo."
Another resident is quoted as saying: "I saw two women police officers get out of a car near Rae Street, giggling about taking a photo and then they got back in the car and drove away."
The posts shared to Facebook on the GMP Stockport page refer to Operation Valiant and sometimes claim that Edgeley is a 'hotspot' for crime in the borough. They often include a line which says: "You may see our officers out and about today as they prevent robbery and violent crime."
Coun Bailey, who represents Edgeley and Cheadle Heath, told the M.E.N. : "I wrote to Chf Con Watson saying to him this is a little bit superficial. Having posts appearing and then driving off again is not necessarily what people want to see.
"It's not the way to win friends and influence people. It's somewhat cynical I think - and not helpful when they have an awful lot of ground to make up - to be doing this sort of thing.
"I just don't know why they have done it - the confidence in them is already at quite a low ebb and this sort of thing is not going to encourage people at all. Maybe they need to think again about it."
GMP declined to comment when approached by the M.E.N. on this issue or on the previous article about Rae Street last week.
