‘Public is starting to feel impact of cuts’
GREATER Manchester’s top cop Ian Hopkins said there were a number of reasons for the spike in crime across the force, including improved methods of recording offences and the sharp rise in internet-related crime such as online grooming.
“Today’s crime figures show what we have all known for some time – that crime has gone up across all areas of policing,” Chief Constable Hopkins said. “While there is no single reason for this, it is true to say that new ways of recording crime and data integrity accounts for around half of this increase,” he said.
“We all know that crime is far more complex than in the past, partly due to the internet and digital technology, as well as the changing nature of crime with offences such as online child sexual exploitation and modern slavery - sadly a common occurrence.
“Our attendance at incidents is getting longer because of the complexity and the necessity to capture information to safeguard people and better record crimes.
“On average, we spend 40 minutes longer at an incident than we did five years ago.”
Mr Hopkins admitted cuts had meant GMP were being forced to ‘prioritise those incidents where the greatest harm is caused.’
He said: “We have lost 2,000 police officers in recent years.
“This means that, for the first time, the public are starting to see and feel the impact of a reduction in numbers in terms of our response times to non-emergency incidents and the level of investigations we can conduct.
“Quite simply, we are having to prioritise those incidents where the greatest harm is caused more than ever before.
“While this is an undoubtedly challenging set of circumstances for us, we are working ever more closely with other agencies, voluntary groups and communities at the local level, to help ensure people receive support from the right service.
“The reform of our public services across Greater Manchester through better integration is key to reducing crime and keeping our neighbourhoods safe.
“This means we are intervening and supporting vulnerable people and families as early as possible to ensure problems are dealt with before they even reach the emergency services.
“GMP officers have been given a number of tools to help them deal with incidents, including body worn video and mobile technology to allow them to work more in our communities.
“Soon we will be getting mobile fingerprint identification and creating better online access to our services for the public.”