GMP bosses think 'remarkable improvement' could see force out of special measures by end of the year

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Greater Manchester Police is set to come out of special measures by the end of the year, according to the senior officer overseeing its "remarkable" transformation. GMP became one of six forces to be put in special measures by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in December 2020 over its poor handling of victims.

The damning assessment put GMP alongside The Met, Cleveland, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the cop doghouse. But, now Chief Superintendent Rick Jackson, performance and improvement oversight lead for GMP, has presented a progress report on rapid improvements to the force.

Speaking to elected councillors on the Greater Manchester Police, Fire and Crime Panel, he said: "All the signs are - and I don't want to tempt fate - that GMP will be released from engagement [into special measures] later this year." Under questioning from Councillor Steve Williams, he admitted that when he began his task he "thought it would be like turning a liner around".

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Mr Jackson continued: "The progress has been remarkable, but there is an awful lot of work to do. We are certainly not sitting back on our laurels." He explained how in late 2020 the HMIC identified 166 "causes for concern" or "areas for improvement" which were "not normal for a force" and were "too high".

Those causes for concern resulted in 120 recommendations from the inspectorate, but, said Mr Jackson, those recommendations have now fallen to 25 and were expected to be below 20 within the next two weeks. "They were saying we were failing to respond to incidents quickly enough and failing to record the incidents accurately," he