I wouldn’t want to report a crime to my own force
Officer slams Greater Manchester Police’s ‘serious failings’
A POLICE force has been condemned by one of its own officers who says he would not feel confident reporting a crime there.
The officer told BBC’s Newsnight there were “serious failings” in Greater Manchester Police (GMP) – England’s second largest force.
He is being backed by past and present officers who have come forward to voice similar concerns.
Suffering
In December, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services found GMP failed to record 80,000 crimes in a 12-month period, and closed cases without proper investigation.
Former chief constable Ian Hopkins resigned, and successor Stephen Watson told a recent press conference that vital improvements would be made rapidly.
He said: “That is not to say GMP is a failing force. It is composed of many thousands of genuinely hardworking, committed, brave, talented, professional people.”
But former officer Scott Winters said he could not wait to leave the force in 2017 after 28 years of service. In 2015, he took it to an employment tribunal, later reaching an out-of-court settlement.
He claimed the force put its reputation ahead of tackling problems.
And it was members of the public who were suffering as a result.
Mr Winters added: “They’re a victim of crime and they’ve not either had the crime recorded or had a chance of the perpetrators being brought to justice and punished.”
Some serving officers say the situation has not improved. One, who asked to remain anonymous, said that criminals “are luckier now” as they are “literally walking the streets and not being arrested”.
Newsnight cited the case of a woman whose daughter reported a rape allegation against a named man two years ago. The mum, called Patricia in the programme, said that police in Rochdale said they “knew a lot of stuff about this man” but he has not been arrested.
Patricia said that four different officers had handled the case, and a phone her daughter gave them as evidence had temporarily gone missing. She said: “To me they are absolutely incompetent, there’s no other word to sum them up. “What this man did has ruined probably the best years of her life, and he’s still out there.”
Mr Watson said: “I will apologise absolutely. This family are not getting the service they need.” Many officers have pointed to GMP’s new computer system, which went live two years ago, as the catalyst of some of the failings. Called iOPS, it has been dubbed iFLOPS by many insiders who say it is not fit for purpose.