Police in Manchester don’t have the resources to attend a growing number of crimes, according to the city’s newspaper.
The Manchester Evening News reports that victims of crime are increasingly being told that officers simply don’t have the resources to be able to send an officer to visit, take statements or investigate.
One parent, whose daughter was violently assaulted at a park in Oldham, was told it ‘wasn’t cost effective’ to send an officer to help and instead suggested she resolve the issue herself by visiting the parents of the attacker.
Businessman Alan Baker was forced to track down his own stolen wallet, finding out where thieves had used his cards and finding CCTV images from nearby shops.
Despite this, he was told officers couldn’t attend every report of a crime.
Another parent, whose daughter was allegedly being blackmailed by a ‘pervert’ waited more than two days for an officer to speak to her after she eventually got fed up of waiting and marched down to a police station and demanded to speak to someone.
“It’s rocked my faith in the police. I know nobody was murdered or raped but it could have got that far. I just felt like it wasn’t taken seriously.
“I don’t blame the police, I know they are stretched, but the government needs to fix this,” she told the paper.
Chief Superintendent Neil Evans said government cuts were largely to blame for the state of the police in the city.
“We dare to suggest that the issues they raise may have something to do with the approximately £180m reduction in funding over recent years,” he said.
A reduction of nearly 2,000 officers and 1,000 police staff – nearly 25pc of the workforce. GMP receives 186 emergency 999 calls per 1,000 of the population, where the national average is 135,” he added.
As of last month, the city had a little over 6,000 police officers and around 4,000 support staff, shockingly low for a city with an estimated population of 2.5 million.
For comparison, London has nearly 31,000 officers and more than 12,000 support staff.
Manchester Police say they can receive 3,500 calls a day and up to 4,000 on a weekend.
“We have more incidents to resource than officers to resource them,” explained Dep Chief Constable Pilling.
“We can’t send a police officer to every incident. It’s not possible.”