Operation Castle

On 27 July 2021, the government unveiled their Beating Crime Plan - their commitment to fewer victims, peaceful neighbourhoods and a safe country. One of the key priorities within this plan was to cut neighbourhood crime including vehicle related theft, robbery of personal property, theft from person and domestic burglary.

Burglary makes up 30% of all neighbourhood crime offences across the UK and the government are determined to drive this particularly devastating crime down and in turn ensure that communities feel safe in their homes.

GMP has volunteered to work with the government to evaluate the benefits of sending a police officer to every domestic burglary across Greater Manchester. This initiative will assess the impact on crime prevention, detection and public confidence that 100% attendance at burglaries has.

Following on from this, the force developed Operation Castle - our forcewide response to tackling burglaries from both a residential and commercial perspective.

Operation Castle, which has been in place for a number of weeks, has already seen results across districts with a number of offenders arrested and residents/ business owners given crime prevention advice to prevent repeat incidents together with dedicated burglary cars across districts to support communities.

Superintendent Dave Pester, GMP's force tactical lead for Operation Castle said: "We'd like to reassure residents that we want to prevent burglaries happening in the first place however when a burglary does happen, we will attend wherever possible.

"Burglary is one of the most intrusive forms of crime a person can experience - whether it's your home, your school, or the business you've created. This is why Operation Castle has been developed and I'd like to reinforce our commitment to deploying a police officer to every burglary - whether that is residential or elsewhere in the community.

"This new renewed commitment for GMP means that we will actively be targetting burglary offenders, arresting them and bringing them to justice because we know the misery they can cause to our communities.

"For every burglary reported to ourselves, we are prepared to take robust action to fight this high impact crime and every report will be investigated - utilising a full range of assets from across the force including from our forensic teams to identify offenders where possible and delivering support crime prevention advice as well as victim support.

"Anyone with information that will help us to bring burglars and handlers of stolen goods to justice is encouraged to contact ourselves either via the LiveChat or reporting function on our website or by calling 101. You can also pass on information anonymously through CrimeStoppers by calling 0800 555 111. Always dial 999 in an emergency."

Further crime prevention advice can be found below:

https://www.gmp.police.uk/cp/crime-prevention/protect-home-crime/