GMP continues to join forces with the hotel industry to fight child exploitation happening behind closed doors

Spend the night with plain clothes police and volunteers as we conduct test purchases at hotels across the city centre to see if employees can spot the signs of potential child exploitation and report it to the police.

The BBC joined us in the city centre to see how Greater Manchester Police and the hospitality industry are safeguarding young people through increased engagement, education, and test purchasing.

Over the course of the evening, we conducted several test purchases at various hotels across the city centre, to see how they handled situations of potential exploitation in their hotel. Using a plain clothes officer as a suspect, and a volunteer posing as an underage victim, we attempted to book a hotel room to see if the staff could spot signs of child sexual exploitation and take action to safeguard young people.

Overall, as a result of Operation Makesafe training, we could see that the majority of hotels had a good understanding of child exploitation, they challenged the test purchasers and refused to sell them a room, before calling the police to report their concerns.

In one instance, employees failed to challenge the test purchasers or report suspicious activity to the police. A full debrief was conducted after this, and further training will be required to help them identify signs of child exploitation and understand the impact of allowing people to book a hotel room in suspicious circumstances can have. 

The aim of the operation is to empower hoteliers and employees to feel confident in spotting the signs of potential exploitation happening in front of them and reporting it to the police so that we can act. These operations also help us to understand where there are gaps in the knowledge and training of hotel staff so that we can address these to ensure young people are kept as safe as possible.

Chief Superintendent David Meeney, District Commander for Manchester, said: “It is vital that we raise awareness amongst key local businesses as well as members of the public so they can learn what to look out for, spot the signs, and ultimately help safeguard young people.

“We know that people generally have very good instincts about situations that might not look or feel right, and Operation Makesafe enables them to feel empowered to act on those feelings. We want to give local businesses the confidence to report their concerns or suspicions to us, knowing that they will be taken seriously, and we will do everything we can to disrupt and deter potential exploiters, and prevent young people from being exploited in the first place.

“Sometimes there may be a perfectly innocent explanation for a situation, but if we can protect even one vulnerable young person from harm, this initiative will have been worthwhile – so we always ask that people report their concerns to us. It might be nothing, but by reporting it to us, this allows us to investigate and make sure no one is at risk.”

Support from hotels and local businesses is crucial to our success, and across Greater Manchester, we have robust networks which enable us to identify, disrupt, and remove the opportunity for potential perpetrators to offend.

Find out more here: Hotels and businesses play major role in safeguarding children in Manchester city centre | Greater Manchester Police