When Chief Constable Stephen Watson first took over the top job at GMP he described the UK's second largest police force as a 'sleeping giant'. His job was to awake it from its slumber.
The Manchester Evening News, on the other hand, described him as the policing equivalent of Big Sam Allardyce, drafted in with his team facing relegation and charged with task of turning things around sharpish. A few months earlier, after a damning inspection report, GMP became just the second force in the UK to be placed in special measures.
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But on Friday inspectors said the force had made 'clear, demonstrable progress' and was now the most improved in the country. Here we take a look back at what what wrong for GMP and how the force got back on the right track...
What went wrong?
For almost five years before the force went into special measures, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate had been warning top brass improvements were needed. Serious concerns were repeatedly raised about GMP's crime recording and protection of vulnerable people. Similar frustrations were also being raised among the region's MPs and in its town halls.
In May 2019 HMI identified a decline in performance, warning that too many crimes were being wrongly downgraded as unworthy of investigation, of a lack of strategy within neighbourhood policing and of worries about its treatment of vulnerable victims.
GMP rejected these criticisms. "Whilst we accept some of these findings, there are others which we have challenged. In particular we do not agree that our performance has declined since the last report," said the force at the time.
"We have made many improvements since the last report and we already have a plan in place to continue to make further improvements where we need to do so."
It was indicative of a culture of denial which went right to the very top of the force. In a wide-ranging M.E.N. investigation into the failures at GMP several former police officers pointed to poor leadership, weaknesses in the promotions system, lack of external scrutiny and a series of bad organisational decisions, which they said were behind the force's decline.
Added to this were difficulties with the force's new £27m computer system iOPS, which led to problems recording hundreds of crimes, potentially putting victims at risk. Again the leadership's approach was to deny there was a problem.
Things came to a head in December 2020 when in a blistering report inspectors uncovered what they described as the 'poor service the force provides to many victims of crime'. A staggering 80,000 crimes reported to GMP were found to have gone unrecorded.
“Victims of crime are too often being let down by Greater Manchester Police. The service provided to victims, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is a serious cause of concern. This is extremely disappointing given that HMICFRS has been urging Greater Manchester police to improve in this area since 2016,” said the HM inspector of constabulary, Zoë Billingham.
The force was placed in special measures in what amounted to the biggest public service failure in Greater Manchester in years. Chief Constable Ian Hopkins lost his job in the scandal.
What's improved?
Chief Constable Stephen Watson promised he would return GMP 'back to basics' when he took over from Ian Hopkins. And it's that approach which seems to have underpinned the force's improvement.
Waiting times have been slashed, especially for vulnerable people. It now takes just seven seconds to answer a 999 call, down from 1 minute 22 seconds in June 2021. Average non-emergency call answer times are now at 1 min 4 seconds down from last summer's high of 6 mins 44 seconds.
Response times to 999 incidents have also been cut dramatically to an average of 10 mins 19 seconds, down from a peak of 13 mins 35 seconds. And officers now attend less serious grade two calls in an average of 2 hrs 13 min. In August 2021 the average wait time was 28 hrs 45 min.
But it's not just response times that have been improved. A total of 1,475 burglaries have been solved in the last 12 months, which is an increase of 88% on the previous year.
In the 12 months to the end of September 2022, 23,483 GMP investigations resulted in a charge or summons, an increase of 42%. Stop and search has also been stepped up, with 2,528 people being stop searched in September 2022, a 275% increase on the year before, with 2,093 resulting in an arrest.
This is a 101% increase on the previous year and complaints have reduced by 29%, 'demonstrating an ethical and measured approach to this tactic,' say the force. Inspectors also found the force now has a better understanding of its performance and the capability and capacity of its workforce; has improved support for officers and staff and halved the number of open investigations, giving officers more time to focus on bringing offenders to justice.
Areas still to improve
Andy Cooke from the HMI said that while he was 'pleased" with GMP's progress 'there is still more to do'. At a press conference on Friday Mr Watson agreed, saying there was still 'a lot to be done'.
The quality of investigations needs to improve, the chief constable said. And the outcomes of those investigations - arrests, charges and convictions - are 'not at the level we want them to be', he said.
"There are frankly still too many occasions where we don't get it quite right," Mr Watson said.
"Where we don't quite convert an arrest into a positive outcome, or a positive outcome is achieved, but it isn't quite achieved to the satisfaction of the victim
"There is something about the quality of our investigations that still needs to improve further. Whilst our outcomes are improving and are improving more rapidly than anywhere in the country, they are not at the level we want them to be. I have no doubt those things will come, but some things are quicker to turn than others."
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