City region needs many more police officers

APPARENTLY, there are now only 6,300 regular police officers working for Greater Manchester Police.

Greater Manchester Police has 10 areas to cover and they are Manchester, Trafford, Wigan, Bury, Oldham, Tameside, Salford, Stockport, Bolton and Rochdale.

If you divide 6,300 by 10 it means on average each area is served by just 630 regular police officers.

There is a secondary school not far from where I live in the Manchester area of Greater Manchester Police with more than 900 pupils and it puts into perspective for me the very low numbers of officers in my force area.

We’ve had two major terrorist bombs affecting the city, the recent one using practically the entire GMP force resources for months due to an absolutely necessary huge investigation. We have two major football teams, and many others, pulling in massive fan bases during the season as well as the thousands of European fans.

We host major political party conferences. We have huge events in the city on a regular basis with thousands regularly coming in to the city for music and other arts events.

We have three major universities in the city, and also Salford, bringing in thousands upon thousands of young people to live here. We have a great many historical criminal investigations ongoing that have tied up detectives for months and years.

We have many serious issues with gang culture and have seen some heinous crimes as a result of gangs that have run out-of-control at times. We remember the two murdered WPCs Nicola and Fiona.

Manchester is not like other cities around the country except for perhaps London and possibly Birmingham. The police here are stretched to the limits. It seems to me there is a very strong case to be made for bringing our police force back up to full strength. We’re not that far from the rise of vigilante groups in our communities, because community policing is all but dead in the water.

This cannot be allowed to happen and would be the beginning of the breakdown of law and order in Manchester. Please, someone, put a case to this government that we here in Manchester want and need a properly resourced police force. Jacqueline Cotter, Levenshulme