Greater Manchester PEEL 2017
Effectiveness
How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How effective is the force at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective is the force at investigating crime and reducing re-offending?
Greater Manchester Police requires improvement at investigating crime and reducing re-offending.
The force:
- has effective processes in place to manage offenders who pose a risk to the public; and
- is improving the quality of its investigations of lower-level offences.
However, the force needs to ensure that there is regular and active supervision of investigations to improve quality and progress.
The force also:
- conducts investigations of inconsistent quality, partly due to a shortage of detectives; and
- sometimes fails to bring offenders to justice as effectively as it should.
Areas for improvement
- The force should take steps to ensure that all available evidence is recorded at scenes of crime.
- The force should ensure that there is regular and active supervision of investigations to improve quality and progress.
How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?
Greater Manchester Police requires improvement at protecting vulnerable people and supporting victims.
The force is effective at:
- identifying vulnerable people;
- carrying out the initial risk assessment and referring victims and vulnerable people to other organisations;
- using legal powers to protect vulnerable victims; and
- working with partner organisations to provide longer-term safeguarding arrangements for vulnerable people and victims of crime.
However, the force:
- routinely fails to attend incidents within an appropriate timescale;
- needs to improve the quality of investigations in cases involving vulnerable people; and
- should seek to improve the way it obtains feedback from vulnerable victims and uses this to improve the services it provides.
The force’s failure to respond appropriately to some people who are vulnerable is a cause of concern for HMICFRS.
The force is aware of its failure to provide a consistent and effective response to vulnerable victims and has plans in place to improve its attendance times.
Cause of concern
Greater Manchester Police is failing to respond appropriately to some people who are vulnerable and at risk. This means that early opportunities to safeguard victims and secure evidence at the scene are being missed, and victims are being put at risk.
Recommendations
- The force should improve its understanding of demand for its services and take appropriate action to ensure demand is managed more effectively.
- The force should improve its ability to respond appropriately to calls for service and improve the initial investigative response it provides to all vulnerable victims.
Areas for improvement
- The force should implement a process to obtain feedback from victims of domestic abuse.
How effective is the force at tackling serious and organised crime?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?
National threats often require forces to work together, across force boundaries. These threats include terrorism, large-scale disorder and civil emergencies. We examined the capabilities in place to respond to these threats, in particular a firearms attack.
Most positively, the force:
- works with other forces to ensure sufficient staff and officers with specialist skills respond to national threats;
- tests its skills and capabilities in training exercises;
- has established a joint communications centre, with other emergency services and other organisations, to improve its response to major incidents; and
- has developed an adequate understanding of the threat that the public face from an armed attack.
However, the force needs to:
- set out its understanding of the criminal use of firearms in a threat assessment that is specific to the Greater Manchester area.