Greater Manchester Police
(GMP) is the territorial police force
responsible for law
enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater
Manchester
, in North West
England.
The Greater Manchester Police employs; 8,167
police officers, 380
Volunteer Special
Constables, 270
Police Community Support
Officers, with 3,769 civilian members of staff, supporting the
service.
It is the second largest police force in
England and Wales after Greater London
's Metropolitan Police Service
. The GMP headquarters are at Chester House,
Old
Trafford
.
Under previously failed
proposed
mergers, which saw plans to merge most police forces with
bordering ones, GMP would not have been affected and would have
remained as a single police force.
The former slogan of Greater Manchester Police is:
Fighting
Crime, Protecting People.
History
The force was formed in 1974 by the amalgamation of
Manchester and Salford Police
with parts of
Lancashire
Constabulary,
Cheshire
Constabulary and
West
Yorkshire Constabulary. The first
Chief Constable of the force was William
James Richards, followed shortly afterwards, in 1975 by
James Anderton. In 1993 David Wilmot
succeeded
James Anderton. In 2002
Michael Todd was appointed to Chief Constable until his death in
2008.
Police
Constable Ian Rodgers was the first GMP
officer to be killed in the line of duty in
1975.
His
death occurred in a railway incident at Stockport
. Since the formation of GMP 20 officers have
been killed or died in the line of duty.
The GMP
dealt with the 1996 Manchester bombing
and the 2008
Football Riots. There was much press coverage of the
death of the then Chief Constable
Michael J. Todd in March 2008.
Following Michael J. Todd's death in post,
Peter Fahy, previously head of
Cheshire Police, was appointed as Chief
Constable in September, 2008.
CONTROVERSY
In 2003, video evidence emerged documenting racist acts by police
trainees and officers, including one member applauding Hitler and
another donning a ku klux klan outfit and flagrant use of the word
nigger and paki to deride other police trainees.
Organisation
The area GMP polices is split into geographical
divisions, with each
Metropolitan borough of Greater
Manchester being assigned one, with the exception of the City of
Manchester, which has three divisions. Each division provides
officers that patrol the community, and response officers that
respond to emergencies, along with
CID officers. Each
division is headed by a
Chief
Superintendent.
Divisions
- A -
North Manchester (including the City Centre
)
- B - Metropolitan Division
- C - South Manchester
- F -
Salford
City centre policing
GMP
maintains a neighbourhood policing structure, responsible for
policing different areas within the city
centre, consisting of:
Air Support Unit
GMP's
Air Support
Unit, with its call sign as "India 99", operates an
MD Explorerhelicopter, along with
a fixed-wing
Britten-Norman
BN-2T-4S Defender, with its call sign being "India 66".
Road Policing Unit
GMP also operates a Road Policing Unit (RPU) responsible for all
traffic policing in the county, which includes over 280 miles of
motorway. The unit operates specialised
BMW
X5s,
Volvo V70s,
Vauxhall VectraVXR special editions, and a
number of
BMW3 & 5 Series. Previously the
Motorway and the Motorcycle units stood separately, but in recent
years both have been incorporated into the RPU's. There is however
still a separate unit based at Birch Motorway Services which is
responsible for enforcement of Road Traffic Legislation on the
Motorway Network. BMW R1200RT-P motorcycles have recently replaced
the Honda Pan-European ST 1100's & ill-fated ST 1300's. The
RPU's are divided into five strategic units.
During the 1990s, the GMP's area had a high rate of car crime.
To combat
this the Tactical Vehicle
Crime Unit was formed which is based at Eccles,
Greater Manchester
Police Station.
Serious Crime Division
The SCD is a unit of GMP responsible for dealing with serious
crimes and providing protection for vulnerable people. The force
also has an Anti-Terrorism Unit formed in April 2005 within
Special Branch.
Tactical Firearms Unit
Officers of the GMP, as in the rest of Great Britain, do not
routinely carry firearms. Instead, the GMP maintains a
firearms unitto provide them with a capability
to deal with armed criminals. The
Greater
Manchester Police, Tactical Firearms Unitmaintains
Armed Response Vehicles, which
transport armed officers to the scene. Like some other forces,
firearms officers carry the
Heckler
& KochG36along with the
Heckler & Koch MP5semi-automatic
carbine,
Glock 17 pistol, and the
X26 Taser.
Dog Unit
In 2003 GMP had over 110
dogs. However,
this has recently been reduced to only 35 dogs across the force,
leaving many areas without a single dog available. The dogs are
involved in important operational duties such as tracking, building
searches, and other criminal work across Greater Manchester. The
majority of general purpose police dogs are
German Shepherds, but other breeds are also
used, including
Rottweilers,
Belgian Shepherdsand
Giant Schnauzers.
Mounted Unit
The GMP maintains a
mounted
policingcapability. The mounted officers are employed to target
crime hotspots and are also seen at many events including
demonstrations and the region's
footballmatches. Horses are also used to search
inaccessible areas for missing or wanted people. The unit is made
up of a team of specialist police officers, skilled
groomsand
trainers,
and 35 horses.
The mounted unit is based at Hough End, in
Chorlton
, and uses horseboxes to transport the horses for
duties around Greater Manchester.
Special Constabulary
GMP has over 300
Special
Constables, who are assigned to each of the twelve divisions.
Special Constables work alongside their regular counterparts and
are assigned to Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs). This is
normally co-ordinated by the Chief Officer of the Special
Constabulary. Under the guidance of the new Chief Constable, it is
envisaged that the number of Special Constables within GMP will
increase to 1,000 officers, within a 3 year period from 2009.
Video Intelligence Unit
This unit conducts
overtsurveillanceof certain released prisoners and
upload some footage onto
YouTubeof people
that they believe have reoffended.
Equipment
Uniform
The normal GMP uniform is now combat style trousers and a black
zipped neck polo shirt; a high visibility jacket is worn as
necessary. Headgear for male constables and sergeants is a
custodian helmetwhen on foot patrol, and a
peaked capfor other duties. Female
officers wear a rounded bowler style hat. As with other forces, GMP
traffic officers wear a cap with a white top. Some specialists,
such as police dog handlers and firearms officers, wear a blue
shirt.
With effect from 1 June 2009, GMP will be adopting a new uniform
for operational officers. This will comprise a back zip next shirt
and straight leg style combat trousers. PCSOs will be issued with a
light blue shirt.
Personal equipment
Uniformed officers when on duty carry a handheld encrypted
Airwaveradio(made by
Sepura)
which makes use of
TETRAtechnology. On their
duty belt(or in the case of
CID officers, a
covert harness) they carry: an expandable
batonwhich has recently been changed
from the rigid Monadnock PR-24 Baton to the extendable Monadnock
Autolock Baton,
CS spray,
rigid Hiatt speedcuffs, a
first aid pouch(containing
medical gloves,
CPR
maskand
antisepticwipes), and are
required to wear a
stab/ballistic
vestwhilst on operational duties.
Vehicles
Standard
panda Carsinclude the
Ford Fiesta,
Ford
Focus,
Vauxhall Corsa, and
Vauxhall Astra. The force's traffic
unit operates the
Vauxhall Vectra,
BMW 3 Seriesestate, and
Volvo S60, whilst the Motorway Unit operates the
Range Rover,
Volvo
V70, and
BMW X5. The
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter,
VW Transporter,
Ford
Transitand
Ford Transit
Connectare used in section van and support roles. The Dog
Section uses
Vauxhall Astravans
Newspaper
The force also has its own newspaper,
Brief, which is
distributed to thousands of officers, making it one of the largest
in circulation. Each 20-page issue has a mix of news about police
initiatives, policies and crime successes, in-depth articles on
specialist units, social and sports news, and regular
features.
See also
References
-
http://www.policememorial.org.uk/Forces/Greater_Manchester/Greater_Manchester_Roll.htm
- http://www.gmp.police.uk/mainsite/pages/newcc.htm
-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5551329695583587541#
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3212442.stm
External links
Video clips
& Northern Quarter
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
