Chief Constable's Blog
The Home Office recently published crime figures and they showed that Greater Manchester had the biggest fall in crime for two years. This relates to the period Oct to December.
I hope you had a good Christmas and a chance for some rest. I spent part of Christmas Eve at Claytonbrook control room talking to some of the staff working there and then spent the rest of Christmas with my family at home.
I have now been Chief Constable for about 14 months and the honeymoon is well and truly over. The Force is in the middle of an ambitious change programme to deal with issues the public and others are concerned about. This has at its heart the further strengthening of neighbourhood policing and local problem solving, and the reduction of unnecessary bureaucracy and delay in the way we answer calls and investigate crimes.
I have now been Chief Constable of Greater Manchester for a year and the honeymoon period is well and truly over.
Policing has certainly been in the news over recent weeks with the G20 protests in London, the counter-terrorism arrests in the North West and even the Lancashire officer who refused to get on a bike for health and safety reasons.
Yesterday I went to my third police funeral in four weeks with the very sad death of Chief Inspector Karin Mulligan. She was a remarkable woman who made a strong stand for equality during her career but also was a very good officer and leader. Our thoughts are with her family.
Over the past few weeks I have continued my journey around the various parts of Greater Manchester visiting my staff, going out on patrol and meeting local people. I recognise that my honeymoon period is coming to an end and quite rightly people and staff ask will ask: “Well, he seems a nice bloke but what’s he going to do?”
I have continued my various visits around Greater Manchester and had many meetings regarding local and national matters. My focus remains on how we can maintain the current reduction in gun and gang activity and how we can further develop neighbourhood policing.