GMP hosts Operation Castle day of learning to improve the way the force tackles burglary in Greater Manchester

Last week, GMP hosted a learning event for Operation Castle which is GMP’s force wide operation to tackle burglaries across Greater Manchester.

Operation Castle has been in operation since July 2021 and has seen a number of successes in the way GMP responds to burglaries.

In the 12 months to February 2023, GMP solved 68.7% more residential burglaries than in the previous year and the number of people arrested on suspicion of burglary in Greater Manchester increased by 42.1%.

In the same period, the force recorded 688 fewer residential burglaries. This is despite improved compliance with national standards, which has resulted in increased recording across many crime types.

During the seminar, officers from across GMP’s districts were invited to hear a number of guest speakers, ranging from Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Kate Green, the Home Office lead for burglary and acquisitive crime to experts from universities, and also internal speakers namely Assistant Chief Constable Sykes and Superintendent Chris Foster - GMP’s lead for Operation Castle, who spoke about the ways GMP can utilise all resources available to help prevent, reduce and tackle burglary offences through educating GMP officers in best practice when dealing with burglary offences. 

As part of the event, officers and staff also heard from a victim of burglary - Peter, who attended the seminar alongside his wife Maureen, and gave an emotional account of when his family home was burgled.

Peter spoke about his love for football and how there are striking similarities between his experience getting burgled and his beloved game. Peter mentioned football was  “a game of attacking and defending.” In Peter’s case, the opposition did breach his home defences with the aim of scoring a goal. Their ‘goal’, however, was to steal hard earned valuable items. Following the incident, his family have dramatically increased home security features to ensure that they don’t score any more “home goals” and urge the public to be more ware of crime prevention advice as they protect people’s homes and belongings.

He also spoke to officers about his personal experience and how GMP could improve in dealing with victims of burglary in the future.

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said: “This event was really important for us as a force to tackle these issues head on.

“By bringing together a number of people and experts from a number of disciplines, we can enrich our knowledge and hear from victims of burglary who can aid our understanding and help improve our response to future incidents, to ensure we keep our continued promise of keeping residents of Greater Manchester safe from crime.

“We use a multi-agency approach to understand key factors that contribute to some areas being targeted more than others. We understand that many burglaries are preventable and can often be predicted, so we will continue to provide crime prevention advice to members of the public which can help prevent burglaries.

“We will also continue to scrutinise our own response through frameworks that is standardised across every district in Greater Manchester.

“Our continued progress with Operation Castle showcases that this is not a flash in the pan operation. As a force, we are committed to continuing to improve our methods of tackling burglaries.

“We remain committed to responding to incidents quicker and increase our response time to dealing with burglary offences. In March, GMP’s Force Contact Centre answered 999 calls in an average 6 seconds and grade 1 call attendance at an average of 10 minutes. We are attending incidents quicker and dealing with them better than we ever have by using all resources available to us.

“GMP will continue this momentum shown in the successes of Operation Castle, to improve our service to victims of crime whilst protecting the citizens of Greater Manchester.”

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