GMP quick off the mark: faster response times see improvements in responding to and fighting crime

Responding to incidents, keeping you safe and arresting suspects has been and always will be three of our biggest priority areas.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson came into post in 2021 and introduced our ‘back to basics’ policing approach, as we pledged that we would make significant improvements to fight crime, protect victims, and keep communities safe.

Over the past three years, we have substantially improved our response to victims in their time of need by picking up the phone in seconds and getting to incidents within minutes.

We invested heavily into new vehicles across the Force along with having nearly 8,200 officers – the most in GMP history – meaning we have got more frontline resources to respond to the public in their time of need quicker than ever-before.

Our response officers attend many emergencies across Greater Manchester, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This year, we recorded 135,726 emergency incidents. This equates to around 11,300 incidents per month, 2,600 per week and 370 per day.

We attended those incidents in 9 minutes 34 seconds on average. This is well inside the national expected standard of 15 minutes and was faster than the average last year, which was more than 10 minutes.

Our response time to priority incidents have significantly improved over the past three years, from April 2020 to March 2021 our response time was 8 hours, 57 minutes and 28 seconds. Whereas in the same period between April 2023 to March 2024, our time now sits at 2 hours 46 minutes and 59 seconds.

Meaning our arrests have almost doubled from 32,996 to 64,729 in that three-year period, underlining the significant changes that have been made to dealing with live incidents since CC Stephen Watson came into post.

Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle, Head of Response Policing at GMP said: “Our reaction to ongoing incidents means that we can get to yourself and your loved ones quicker, which in turn provides a more effective service for those who live, work, and visit Greater Manchester.

“Our response officers who attend emergency and priority incidents are essentially the face of Greater Manchester Police, their hard work and dedication is unquestionable, often putting themselves in harms way for the safety of the public.

“The work we have done over the last three years has seen GMP improve significantly and work is ongoing as we continue on our journey to be the best force we can be.”