Dispersal order issued in Manchester City Centre and beyond to prevent and tackle ASB

A Section 34 dispersal notice has been authorised across Greater Manchester. This equips officers with additional powers to prevent antisocial behaviour and deal with incidents more effectively.

There will be an increase in police presence across Greater Manchester with officers patrolling around key areas. They will be able to instruct and advise anyone who is causing, or very likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to leave an area immediately.

The order was put into place at 12:13pm today (23/11/2024) and will remain in effect for the next 48 hours.

This afternoon officers enforcing the order around Exchange Square arrested a man on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.

Superintendent, Phil Spurgeon within GMP’s specialist operations unit said: “We are monitoring and managing a significant increase in footfall across Manchester City Centre and throughout our districts with groups of youth gathering together and causing disturbances.

“I have authorised a dispersal order under S34 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act across all Greater Manchester. This is in response to a rising number of reports and in the interest of protecting the public from excessive anti-social behaviour, disorder, and criminality over the weekend.

“This order should help visitors travel across GM with ease and enable residents to go about their daily activities.

“There will be an increase in police presence with neighbourhood officers deployed. If you have any concerns, please do approach them, they are there to keep you safe.

“If you see anything suspicious report it to police on 101. Always dial 999 in an emergency.”