Wednesday 30 December 2009

GMP under fire as force is slammed in report


A series of crime and detection league tables comparing Greater Manchester with five similar police force areas paints a bleak picture of law and order across the region. Greater Manchester Police has come under fire from members of the region’s police authority after the area ranked either bottom or next to bottom in four national tables produced from the results of the annual British Crime Survey. The tables showed that the area suffered from a higher rate of so-called ‘acquisitive crime’ – which includes robbery, burglary and car crime – than the five other English forces judged to be most similar. It also came bottom in the proportion of these crimes which are detected.

It came next to bottom in a table of ‘most serious’ violent crime and also in the detection rate for these crimes. The tables, which compare GMP to forces in Merseyside, Northumbria, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, were presented to members of Greater Manchester Police Authority yesterday. Chief Constable Peter Fahy also revealed at the meeting that GMP still had the highest burglary rate of anywhere in the country, despite huge operations recently to crack down on house-breakers. He said the burglary rate in Greater Manchester was ‘something we need to understand’. Authority chairman Coun Murphy described the rate of burglary as ‘staggering’, adding: “There’s huge concern both here and at the Home Office. It’s something we have to put right.”
I think these figures are shameful, and the Chairman of the Police Authority should seriously consider his position. I know people in Chorlton are seriously concerned about burglary, car crime and robbery, and these figures do little to reassure our fears. The loss of police officers due to budget cuts next year will only make matters worse. Local People want to see more police on the street - not less.

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