Chief Constable says he needs a further 500 officers to police Greater Manchester and will have to cope with a reduced budget of £215 million from March this year…

The Chief Constable says:“We have outlined in the Citizens’ Contract that we will use the resources we have responsibly, and people will see this in the plans to use the additional funding. Alongside this the work to transform how we police continues including the introduction of new technology, focusing on those most vulnerable in our communities and ensuring close working with other agencies:”

“Recruiting these new officers will be a challenge and people won’t see an immediate increase as our new recruits will spend 20 weeks at the training centre and then 10 weeks with a tutor before they can patrol alone.

“We have been listening to people about the problems they are facing in communities which is why the officers will be used to boost policing in neighbourhoods and create a proactive team who will work across Greater Manchester supporting community operations.”

The additional precept funding will raise £18m to be used on priorities by:
• Recruiting 170 neighbourhood police officers to support the most vulnerable in communities
•Creating a proactive team of 50 officer working across Greater Manchester to tackle local problems
•Establishing a team of 50 officers to work across the transport network addressing issues

Alongside this will be 50 direct entry detectives who will work on complex investigations which is also funded from the precept agreement.

GMP recruits around 500 officers each year to replace those who leave and this will mean an additional 220 officers are recruited which is regarded as a  significant undertaking for the Force. Work will get underway to bring in the additional officers throughout 2019-2020.