There is hope though. This man should be in charge of all the police, all the time, everywhere.
"A “back-to-basics” police chief has turned round his “failing” force and taken it out of special measures in just 18 months.
Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), put more bobbies on the beat, and required officers to pursue every crime lead and turn out smartly with polished boots with the result that the official watchdog said the force no longer needed “enhanced monitoring,” the term for special measures.
Answer times for 999 calls have been slashed to a twelfth of what they were in summer 2021, putting them among the top 10 for forces in England and Wales, arrests are up 60 per cent year on year and the number of investigations resulting in an offender being charged has risen 42 per cent.
It is the second force turned round by Mr Watson, an arch critic of “woke” policing who quipped in a Telegraph interview that the only people he took the knee to were the Queen, God and Mrs Watson. He joined GMP in May 2021 after transforming South Yorkshire Police with the same “back-to-basics” formula.
He replaced Ian Hopkins as chief constable after the crisis-hit force was placed in special measures in December 2020.
He said failure of leadership was one of the reasons for GMP’s problems, but added: “The fundamental failing was simply that we stopped doing the basics well, we stopped being the police and we stopped doing many of the things that our public have every right to expect.”
Approaches to restore confidence included pledging to investigate every crime however “minor”, banning the recent fashion for “screening out” weak cases, sending officers to every burglary scene and restoring neighbourhood policing, or more colloquially “bobbies on the beat.”
He said the public were “fed up” with police virtue signalling rather than locking up burglars - and told officers he expected them to be clean shaven, with neat hair and smart, providing then with upgraded uniforms to replace the old cheap “not fit for purpose” kit that did not have GMP insignia to save money.
Since June 2021, 999 answer times have been reduced from one minute 22 seconds to just seven seconds, putting the force eighth out of 43 in England and Wales for percentage answered within 10 seconds.
It is the best performance of any large metropolitan force while non-emergency times are down from six minutes 44 seconds at last summer’s peak to just one minute and four seconds.
Arrests are at their highest for two years at 4,872 for September 2022, up 60 per cent on the previous September, with the force on track to record the highest number of arrests since 2015/16.
Officers have conducted nearly 23,500 investigations which resulted in a charge, up 42 per cent, which the force said showed it was not “not only arresting the criminals but ensuring they are put through the full judicial process and face justice as appropriate”.
The number of stop and searches of suspects have nearly quadrupled with 2,093 of the 2,528 stops in September resulting in an arrest, evidence that suggests that it is a tactic that has been targeted rather than indiscriminate.
The success of GMP means the number of forces in special measures has dropped back to six - a seventh of the constabularies in England and Wales. They are the Metropolitan Police, Cleveland, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire.
Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of police said he was pleased with GMP, adding: "I am reassured by the plans GMP has in place to continue making improvements.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/28/anti-woke-stephen-watson-greater-manchester-police-chief-constable/
