UPDATE: |The man who has turned around GMP – and what he still wants to do News

‘This is a police force that is being the police force that people here always should have had’

It’s the contract extension bobbies of all ranks – and the tax-paying public – hope will see GMP continue to climb the premier league of policing.

The country’s second largest police force was struggling when Stephen Watson transferred over from south Yorkshire as chief constable.

But at South Yorkshire Police, as the county’s top cop, he had transformed the force into one of the highest-performing in the country – a process he has repeated here in Greater Manchester by dragging GMP out of so-called ‘special measures’ imposed by the government.

After swearing his oath to the city region in May, 2021, Chief Constable Watson described Greater Manchester Police as a ‘sleeping giant’. The force has very much been woken from its slumber by his no-nonsense approach and a welcome return to basic, professional and traditional policing standards and policies.

In 2020, GMP was placed in ‘special measures’ by the Home Office following a damning government watchdog report, which estimated the force had failed to properly record 80,000 crimes. The report, by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) – said the force was failing to record one in four violent crimes reported to it. Even a ‘risk to the public’ was referenced.

But two years later – in October, 2022 – the Home Office monitoring process was removed and a year later, GMP was ranked as the most improved in the country.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, today confirmed Chief Constable Watson’s contract, which was due to expire next year, has been extended until at least May, 2028. Making the announcement, he said Greater Manchester was ‘backing him to finish the job’.

Neighbourhood policing – bobbies on the beat based in our communities – has been transformed under his watch, as have arrest levels, said the mayor. In the 12 months to December 2024, GMP made 67,084 arrests, a 5.6 per cent increase compared to the previous year. The increase in arrests coincided with a decrease in recorded crime incidents of eight per cent.

GMP’s senior leadership team has been completely reworked under Chief Constable Watson and chief superintendents have been brought back to head each geographical policing area of Greater Manchester, as had previously been the case.

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Personal standards of officers have been addressed – another nod to policing standards of the past.

Bad apples at GMP have been rooted out like never before – the force dismissing three times as many officers in 2024 than in 2022.

Call and incident response times have been increased – 999 calls now being answered in two seconds, down from 47 seconds, and 101 calls answered in 33 seconds, down from two minutes – as have the overall number of crimes solved, GMP said.

Residential burglaries fell from 15,519 to 10,632 in four years, and vehicle crime fell from 23,500 to 17,499 over the same period.

Chief Constable Watson said GMP was ‘no longer an underperforming force’ when special measures were lifted.

It was, he said, a ‘force to be reckoned with’. The statistics back up his claims and with Home Office funding confirmed for the recruitment of a further 176 new frontline officers – to join the 670 neighbourhood officers already in place – policing numbers will be back up to what they were in 2010.

There have been past failings to face along the way and honest admissions made, however. Chief Constable Watson, although not in the top role at the time, apologised ‘unreservedly’ for the force’s response on the night of the Manchester Arena terror bombing.

Harrowing and humiliating stories of women arrested and detained in custody by GMP were revealed in a report in July last year commissioned by Mr Burnham and carried out by Dame Vera Baird KC, a former national victims’ commissioner. It found examples of ‘unlawful’ detentions and use of strip-searches. Chief Constable Watson said the report evidenced ‘individual examples of low standards, poor behaviour, insensitivity and a lack of care in the face of vulnerability’ on the part of the force.

There were a commitment to implement the recommendations of the Baird Inquiry and since then, the force has ended the use of police strip searches for ‘welfare’ purposes’.

The chief admitted the force ‘messed up’ on historic cases of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale between 2004 and 2012. Girls were failed by the force, he said issuing an apology.

Since then, the force has recommitted to a focus on bringing to justice perpetrators of non-recent child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester. Operation Lytton, centred on non-recent CSE in Rochdale, has resulted in 94 arrests to date, and five convictions that saw defendants sentenced to a combined 71 years in prison. Another trial remains ongoing, and others are set to follow this year and next.

Operation Sherwood, launched in 2022, also made its second arrest in connection with non-recent CSE in Oldham this month.

Mr Burnham, announcing the new contract, said the ‘next challenge’ was to ‘get right underneath issues in places where there is still too much entrenched criminality’. He referenced GMP’s hugely successful Operation Vulcan initiative – an unrelenting blitz on areas plagued by crime that saw Cheetham Hill’s infamous ‘counterfeit street’ torn down and closed.

The mayor said the new officers will help ‘take Operation Vulcan to all all 10 boroughs, so we can do a different style of policing’.

“This is now I think the period where GMP can go to a position where they are good across the board and outstanding in some areas – the police force this city region always should have had,” he said.

“This is a police force that is being the police force that people here always should have had.”

Confirming the contract extension, Mr Burnham said: “Greater Manchester Police has been transformed under Stephen Watson’s leadership.

“When we appointed him to the role in 2021, we were confident that he was the person to turn the force around and lead it into a new era – and that is what he has done. Because of his proactive, back-to-basics approach, and his strong commitment to neighbourhood policing, crime is down across the board and more criminals are being brought to justice.

“While GMP has made significant strides, Stephen and I recognise that there is still more to do. That is precisely why today we are backing him to finish the job and deliver the rebuilt trust and confidence that everyone in Greater Manchester should have in their police force.”

Chief Constable Stephen Watson said people in Greater Manchester were ‘measurably safer than they were in 2021’.

“I was very clear from the outset that there was within GMP a palpable energy, determination and commitment to public service,” he said. “All that was required was to bind the latent potential of the force to a solid plan and to ensure that all were pulling strongly in the same direction.

“It has been an enormous personal privilege to lead a resurgent GMP as our excellent people, together with our partner agencies, have delivered the improvements that our communities rightly deserved. My chief officer team and I know that more remains to be done to protect, embed and further the improvements we’ve made to services, and I am delighted to be staying as Chief Constable to lead the next phase.”