New GMP recruits are out serving the communities of Greater Manchester

An intake of 80 student officers celebrated reaching the end of their initial training at the start of this month - the first time a full intake has been allowed to be present together on-site since before the pandemic. In line with Covid guidance the event took place outdoors and all officers remained socially distanced within their own classes.

During the event a short speech was performed and the presentation of the Carl Piling award was presented to PC Nicola Quinn. The award is named after Sgt Carl Pilling who tragically lost his life to lung cancer. He spent a lot of his time as a PC tutoring student officers and was passionate about development within the force. PC Nicola Quinn was selected due to her natural character traits that will make her an exemplary officer and who will give the best possible service to members of the public. 

Inspector Lucy Smallwood gave a speech to the officers during the event and ended with a reminder of what their priority will always be as a police officer: "Always remember that we are here to serve our communities and that victims are the centre of what we do."

The H20 training began in March and took the student officers 21 weeks to complete. This included a mixture of classroom and online classes involving legislation and police powers training. Due to Covid a lot of this had to be done online, but students embraced the virtual and distance learning and made the best use of the classroom based lessons when they were allowed in.

The officers have now been posted to their allocated districts across Greater Manchester and have joined the frontline response teams where they will undertake patrols with the guidance and support of a tutor constable.