Significant drop in crime reports and increase in arrests across Greater Manchester

In the 12 months to December, recorded crime was down by eight per cent in Greater Manchester, with almost 30,000 fewer incidents.

Greater Manchester Police officers made 67,084 arrests – 3,545 (5.6 per cent) more than the previous year.

There have been particularly notable reductions in neighbourhood crime, including theft from the person (down 28.2 per cent), vehicle offences (down 18.5 per cent) and residential burglary (down 11.3 per cent).

In the same period, the number of crimes solved went up by 12.6 per cent.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson was appointed in 2021 and one of his first changes was increasing the number of neighbourhood officers.

Among the initiatives used to fight neighbourhood crime was Operation AVRO, a force-wide operation which delivers extra resources and specialist officers to a different district within Greater Manchester each month to tackle issues of acute public concern in a highly visible manner.

In November, there were 52 arrests, more than 100 vehicle stops, 120 deployments including knife arches, school events, hot-spot patrols and seven warrants were executed.

Other GMP performance figures show:

• A total of 325,164 crimes reported in the 12 months – 28,269 (eight per cent) fewer than the previous year
• Serious violence – 32,788 crimes, down 4.8 per cent
• Personal robbery – 3,990 crimes, down 7.1 per cent
• Stalking and harassment – 44,252, down 15.4 per cent
• Domestic abuse – 53,342 crimes, down 7.2 per cent
• Child protection – 21,841 crimes, down 2.5 per cent

The latest figures show call handlers now answer 999 calls in four seconds, well inside the national standard of 10 seconds.

In December emergency 999 calls were answered within two seconds on average and 97 per cent of emergency calls were answered within 10 seconds.

The force attends grade one incidents – the most serious – in an average of eight minutes and 34 seconds, almost 90 seconds faster than in 2023.

In December there was an average attendance time of seven minutes and 42 seconds – the fastest time GMP has achieved in a single month.

Assistant Chief Con Matt Boyle said: “It is hugely satisfying to see significant reductions in neighbourhood crime in 2024 and that GMP is delivering results for our communities.

“At the same time as reducing crime volume, we have also seen increases in the rates of crime being solved.

“We are under no illusion that there is still much more to do to keep driving these reductions.

“These statistics are evidence of GMP’s commitment to neighbourhood policing and are a credit to the work of our neighbourhood policing teams in identifying and solving problems, as well as the dedicated neighbourhood crime team, who work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice.

“However, none of this can be achieved alone. We work closely with our partners including local authorities, the CPS, the voluntary sector and the Probation Service.

“Just as important, we have seen growing support from communities to provide intelligence and CCTV, give statements and report suspicious activity.

“Our witness care teams and victim services partners are there to support those who bravely come forward to report these crimes, taking a stand against those would inflict violence and misery.”