Greater Manchester Police chief Ian Hopkins stands down amid force failures

[Thomas]

Got it in one.

look what they were trying to do to us the other day , blame scotlands parliament for scotlands drugs deaths , when wstminster controls all the powers to stop trafficking into scotland and the misuse of drugs act is a reserved matter.

They rely on devolution to deflect blame from westminster ,and ignorance over what powers devolved legislatures actually have  to lay the blame at others feet.

He who controls the purse strings controls the powers .

[cromwell]

yep take it from me cromwell , devolution doesnt work , under the overly centralised westmisnter system.

Devolution is about devolving blame and responsibility with little real power where it matters.

Got it in one.

[Thomas]

Add in the mix  of devolution  of powers greedily grabbed for self aggrandisement  by local politicians but blind to the fact they were set up as fall guys when it all goes wrong,and it is doing so.

yep take it from me cromwell , devolution doesnt work , under the overly centralised westmisnter system.

Devolution is about devolving blame and responsibility with little real power where it matters.

[cromwell]

Greater Manchester Police chief Ian Hopkins' boss is Andy Burnham, who oversees policing in the area.

Surely he should also step down — but he defends himself by saying: "The police service is operationally independent from politicians and rightly so. My job is different. I have to hold the police to account for the services they provide to the Greater Manchester public, and I am here today doing my job holding the police service to account."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55361452

Passing the buck, more like...

Hmmm so much in the mix to this,first off I know for a fact that some nights there are only four or five operational officers in an area of Manchester with a population of 1600000.

To compound the issue if there's a major incident in another area then those numbers of officers are depleted even more.

The cuts to police numbers were never justified,are the tories to blame?  Certainly they have to take a major share of the blame but don't forget this downward spiral in numbers began with blunketts bobbie,in effect plastic coppers who are mostly useless.

Add in the mix  of devolution  of powers greedily grabbed for self aggrandisement  by local politicians but blind to the fact they were set up as fall guys when it all goes wrong,and it is doing so.

Manchester has in Burnham a failed politician in a position that was never wanted, IMO he should go for many reasons other than this.

[patman post]

Greater Manchester Police chief Ian Hopkins' boss is Andy Burnham, who oversees policing in the area.

Surely he should also step down — but he defends himself by saying: "The police service is operationally independent from politicians and rightly so. My job is different. I have to hold the police to account for the services they provide to the Greater Manchester public, and I am here today doing my job holding the police service to account."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55361452

Passing the buck, more like...

[Borg Refinery]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boris-johnson-police-officers-20000-pledge-target-crime-a9052401.html

And for balance:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/905169/police-workforce-mar20-hosb2020.pdf

Important quote from the indy article:

"Even if achieved, it would still fall short of the 21,000 officers lost since 2010 – and there are no plans to reverse the separate decline of 15,000 police staff, which has resulted in officers being dragged into back office and administrative duties."

That 15k number is still unaddressed by Bojo.

Anyway, this thread isn't about that, it's about GMP.

Anyway the cop union said this stuff didn't help...

https://www.polfed.org/gmp/news/2018/1-911-fewer-police-officers-in-greater-manchester-than-in-2010/

[papasmurf]

It would be interesting to know the true picture on this issue, throughout all  police forces, around the country.

Undermanned and underfunded applies to all British police forces. My own opinion is close to collapse in many cases.
Where I live police officers are as rare and rocking horse poo and Unicorns.

[Good old]

Come back James Anderton, all is forgiven:-

More at link:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55368058

Greater Manchester Police chief Ian Hopkins stands down amid force failures
Published12 hours ago

Greater Manchester Police's chief constable has stood down after the force was placed into special measures.

The force was put into an "advanced phase" of monitoring on Thursday after inspectors found it had failed to record 80,000 crimes in a year.

Ian Hopkins said he would step down with immediate effect.

It would be interesting to know the true picture on this issue, throughout all  police forces, around the country.
It's long been noticeable that the police no longer have the means to investigate many crimes fully. In particular since the swinging cuts on budgets imposed in the last ten years. So it's no surprise a lot of crime is actually ignored.
True to Tory form. Patel, throws the blame at the locals. Even though she is top dog , and represents the people that have had the purse throughout the period. An old Thatcher trick that people still suck for some reason.

[papasmurf]

Come back James Anderton, all is forgiven:-

More at link:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-55368058

Greater Manchester Police chief Ian Hopkins stands down amid force failures
Published12 hours ago

Greater Manchester Police's chief constable has stood down after the force was placed into special measures.

The force was put into an "advanced phase" of monitoring on Thursday after inspectors found it had failed to record 80,000 crimes in a year.

Ian Hopkins said he would step down with immediate effect.