The comments made by Jack Straw Minister for Justice were still very much in my mind. For those who missed them he basically said that some officers prefer to be sitting around in the police station keeping warm than being out on the street. He said the problem of bureaucracy and form filling was overstated.

Now it is very important that chief constables stay out of politics but I was pleased that Simon Reed from the Police Federation put up a very good defence of the reality of the situation.

On New Year’s Eve I worked with officers totally committed to being out there on the street. They had to deal with abusive, insulting and violent behaviour and go into situations where on occasions knives and bottles were mentioned and large numbers of people were fighting. They had to deal with complex problems involving vulnerable people when they did not necessarily have the powers to deal with that vulnerability and when they knew that the medical profession was too busy to assist. They had to do their best and make the best decision they could when they knew that if it all went wrong they would be held fully accountable for those decisions.

Most officers seemed to working 12 hour shifts spending long hours on foot patrol or static points in the town centre in sub zero temperatures in the middle of the night when your body clock is at its lowest.

All these comments about commitment apply to many other colleagues who play their part often working unsocial hours. This included some of the staff I met at our control room at Claytonbrook who were due to work 10 hour shifts on Christmas Day and the workshop staff who were in early on Christmas Eve to ensure that over 96 per cent of GMP vehicles were on the road and available for use.

There are lazy staff in GMP just as there are lazy journalists, civil servants or members of any other organisation you care to name. And yes after spending about an hour on foot in Bolton Town Centre on New Year’s Eve I sought the warmth of a Transit Van to ward off the frostbite. I certainly would not put lazy staff as top of my concerns for GMP however - far from it.

What I do have to accept is the point made by Jack Straw that there are variations between forces and some have been more successful in reducing the administrative burden on officers. Over the coming year this will continue to be a focus for GMP as we bring in our new policing model and move more of the efforts of police staff into more direct service to the public.

This is not about the numbers or length of forms, it is more fundamental than that. The point I felt Jack Straw did not deal with is that the level of scrutiny and accountability we work under and the complexity of the society we deal with means we have to record more and more, and risk assessment becomes a greater part of our role.

The final job I went to on New Year’s Eve at around three in the morning was to remove an individual who was having a "breakdown" from a house. It turned out he had drunk too much but also had some sort of anxiety problem. Having removed him ( he did not live at the property and the caller had become scared of him ) we were then left with the problem of what to do with him as we clearly could not leave him on the street but struggled to find anyone else to accept him or even to answer the door to our knocking. Meanwhile another officer had immediately noted the risk in the house we had removed him from in that a five-year-old child lived there but the house was in a complete state and checks had to be made to see whether there was any food in the house. So a job that is not a crime but carries a range of risks and difficulties and certainly kept us away from being available for other jobs for some time and required an officer spending time properly recording the risks involving at least two vulnerable people not because he wanted to be in the warmth of the police station but because properly recording and assessing those risks is now central to our role.

We have many challenges in the year ahead and many difficulties to overcome with some very difficult decisions to be made. I can only say that I am inspired by the commitment of the staff of GMP and my job is to make sure that we make the changes which allow them to fulfil more of their vocation to serve the public and make Greater Manchester a safer place.