Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
, Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 members of police staff, and 560 police community support officers. Additionally, the force has 325 special constables. GMP is headquartered at Central Park, Northampton Road, Newton Heath, Manchester.
In December 2020, GMP was placed into special measures by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), after a watchdog report found that GMP did not record one in five crimes between July 2019 and June 2020. They estimated the force failed to log around 80,100 crimes, a high proportion of which were violent offences. Following the announcement, Chief Constable Ian Hopkins resigned from his post.
History
Greater Manchester Police was directly created from two recently amalgamated city police forces, Manchester and Salford Police and parts of what were Lancashire Constabulary, Cheshire Constabulary and West Yorkshire Constabulary on 1 April 1974. The city forces were Manchester Borough Police, which formed in the late 1830s and Salford Borough Police, which began in 1844. Upon Manchester gaining city status in 1853, its police force changed its name to Manchester City Police to reflect its status. In 1926, Salford also became a city, resulting in Salford Borough Police becoming Salford City Police. These two city forces operated until 1968 when, as a result of compulsory amalgamation, as per the Police Act 1964, Salford City Police merged with Manchester City Police, resulting in the new force of Manchester and Salford Police. This new force lasted only six years, when in 1974 the Local Government Act 1972 created the Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester and with it, Greater Manchester Police. An increase of in terms of policing area and 2,267,090 people over the abolished Manchester and Salford Police.
Indirectly, GMP can also trace its heritage to a number of other borough forces, each with their own significant history, which had been abolished in the late 1960s (under the Police Act 1964) and which had been amalgamated into the county forces of Lancashire and Cheshire. These two county forces only policed these boroughs for around six years before Greater Manchester was created and GMP took over responsibility for providing police services. In the historic Lancashire county area these borough police forces were Bolton Borough Police (1839–1969), Oldham Borough Police (1849–1969), Rochdale Borough Police (1857–1969) and Wigan Borough Police (1836–1969). In the historic Cheshire county area this included Stockport Borough Police (at least 1835–1967).
The first chief constable of GMP was William James Richards. Richards had been the chief constable of the short lived Manchester and Salford Police (1968 to 1974) and before that chief constable of Manchester City Police (1966 to 1968). Following his retirement on 30 June 1976, James Anderton became the new chief constable on 1 July 1976. Anderton was a controversial figure during his 15 years in office due to his outspoken style of leadership and hardline views on crime, policing and morality.
In 1991, David Wilmot succeeded Anderton. In 2002, Michael J. Todd was appointed to chief constable until his death in 2008. There was much press coverage of Todd's death in March 2008. Todd was seen as a man of action and got more "bobbies on the beat", with himself often doing so. GMP's Deputy Chief Constable became the acting chief constable until the appointment of Peter Fahy, previously head of Cheshire Police, as chief constable in September 2008.
Constable Ian Rodgers was, in 1975, the first GMP police officer to be killed in the line of duty. His death occurred in a railway incident at Stockport. Since the formation of GMP, 30 officers have been killed or died in the line of duty. GMP then assisted with the reconstruction of Manchester following the 1996 Manchester bombing.
In the 1990s, Manchester had gained the deriding tag of 'Gunchester', in reference to the city's high gun crime rate at the time. Greater Manchester Police faced the problem of gun crime in Manchester, particularly in the deprived districts in south Manchester. Key gang leaders were jailed for life in 2009. By 2011, the city had shaken off the tag.
On 14 October 2010, Greater Manchester Police posted details of all calls made to them in a 24-hour period on Twitter. The service posted details of every incident reported to its officers in 24 hours to demonstrate how much of their time is spent on what the chief constable called "social work" instead of fighting crime. They repeated this exercise on 14 October 2014.
GMP have used social media as a helpful force rather than a hindrance. In the 2011 England riots, with criticism of the role social media such as Twitter and Facebook had in instigating the riots, GMP stated that support on social media had resulted in many responses from members of the public in trying to catch suspects. GMP then named and shamed any individuals convicted due to their involvement in the riots.
Chief constables 1974–1976: William James Richards 1976–1991: Sir James Anderton 1991–2002: Sir David Wilmot 2002–2008: Michael J. Todd 2008–2015: Sir Peter Fahy 2015–2020: Ian Hopkins 2020–2021: Ian Pilling (acting) 2021–present: Stephen Watson
Officers killed in the line of duty
The following officers of Greater Manchester Police are included in the 30 listed by the Police Roll of Honour Trust as having died during the course of their duties: PC Fiona Bone, 2012 (killed in firearm and grenade attack; cause of death gunshot wound to the chest) PC Nicola Hughes, 2012 (killed in firearm and grenade attack; cause of death gunshot wounds) PC Christopher Hart, 2010 (Died in a road traffic incident while on duty responding to a 999 call) PC Ian Terry, 2008 (shot during a firearms training exercise) PC Allan Shaw, 2006 (died as a result of a Motor Cycle RTC during a special escort training exercise) DC Stephen Oake, 2003 (stabbed during anti-terrorism operation, posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal) PC Alison Armitage, 2001 (run over by a car thief) PC Raja Bashrat Ahmed, 1999 (Police motorcycle rammed into oncoming traffic by car thief) PC Robert Nathans, 1999 (collapsed and died after pursuing a suspect) Inspector Raymond Anthony Codling, 1989 (shot while questioning a suspect on car park at Birch Services M62) DC John Sandford, 1982 (attacked while investigating reports of an indecent assault) PC John Egerton, 1982 (stabbed during an arrest, posthumously awarded Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct)
Governance
Prior to 2012 the Greater Manchester Police Authority was the governing body for Greater Manchester Police. In November 2012 responsibility for governance was transferred to the newly created office of Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, with the first (and only) election for that position being won by Tony Lloyd.
In November 2014, the office of Police and Crime Commissioner was abolished and its responsibilities subsumed into the office of Mayor of Greater Manchester, with Lloyd appointed as interim mayor until the inaugural election in 2017.
Andy Burnham was elected as the inaugural mayor, and served until June 2026. Burnham was succeeded by Bev Craig in August 2026.
The police and crime commissioner was, and subsequently the mayor and their deputy mayor for policing and crime is, scrutinised by the Greater Manchester Police, Fire and Crime Panel which is made up of elected councillors from the local authorities in the police area alongside independent co-opted members.
Organisation The area GMP polices is split into geographical divisions, with each Metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester being assigned one. In 2021, GMP grouped some divisions together to form command areas, the divisions that remain on their own are also still referred to as a command area. Each command area is run by a chief superintendent, with each 'division' or 'cluster' being led by a superintendent.
, these are the six command areas:
South command area (Stockport (J) & Trafford (M) Divisions) East command area (Tameside (G) & Oldham (Q) Divisions) City of Manchester command area (City of Manchester (A) Division) Salford command area (Salford (F) Division) North command area (Bury (N) & Rochdale (P) Divisions) West command area (Bolton (K) & Wigan (L) Divisions)
Manchester Airport (I) Division falls within the Specialist Operations branch.
GMP units Roads Policing Unit
GMP also operates a Roads Policing Unit (RPU) responsible for all traffic policing in the county, which includes over of motorway.
Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit Under the Roads Policing banner, the Greater Manchester Police also maintains a Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit (TVIU).
Initially formed as a response to a rise in vehicle-related crime across Greater Manchester (as in the rest of Britain) in the early 1980s, the TVIU (then called the Traffic Area Support Services or TASS) operated using a fleet of marked Ford Capris, as well as unmarked Lotus Sunbeam cars, which were externally downgraded to appear as a regular Talbot Sunbeam. By the early 1990s, TASS had been replaced by the Tactical Vehicle Crime Unit (TVCU), operating a majority-unmarked high-performance fleet which included Ford Escort XR3i and Ford Sierra RS Cosworth cars. This unit notably featured in the 1995 fly on the wall six-part BBC documentary X-Cars, albeit referred to as 'X Department', which attracted 12 million viewers on the series' first airing and resulted in the TVCU receiving an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the public.
The TVCU was also featured in the 2006 BBC One series Car Wars, to similar public acclaim. It was renamed in the mid-2010s to the Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit (TVIU), a name it keeps to this day.
Air Support Unit
Aviation support has been provided to the GMP by the National Police Air Service (NPAS) since 2012. NPAS operates a EurocopterEC135 T2+ helicopter call sign NPAS 21 from Manchester Barton Aerodrome, which provides support to all neighbouring police forces.
GMP had formed an Air Support Unit in 1989. GMP's first helicopter was a Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel. In 2001, the GMP was operating a McDonnell Douglas MD 902 Explorer helicopter call sign India 99 which remained in service until 2008. The MD 902 Explorer flew more than 8,000hours dealing with around 5,500 incidents and was involved in the arrest of more than 700 criminals. In 2008, a new MD 902 Explorer entered service to replace the older helicopter.
Prior to the establishment of NPAS in 2012, the Air Support Unit had amalgamated with Cheshire Constabulary, North Wales Police and Lancashire Constabulary to form the North West Air Operations Group (NWAOG) in July 2011, operating four helicopters. The group was established to save money and provide flexibility with the closest helicopter able to be deployed to an incident and if there were two incidents in the same force area then two helicopters could be sent if necessary.
The Air Support Unit had also operated a fixed wing aircraft. In January 2002, GMP ordered a Britten-Norman Defender 4000 fixed wing aircraft for the Commonwealth Games in July. In July, GMP began operating the Defender call sign India 66 for the Games which flew on average seven hours a day. The Defender flew around 1,200 hours each year including targeting terrorists and major criminals. The Defender was decommissioned in December 2013. In the United Kingdom, two other police services have also operated the Defender 4000 the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Hampshire Constabulary.