GMP 'improves training' amid 9,000 stop and searches in year

GREATER Manchester Police bosses say they have improved training in the wake of a critical national report into the use of stop and search.

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

Not long after he was installed, Chief Constable Stephen Watson vowed to ramp up the use of the searches in the battle against knife crime. “It is absolutely blindingly obvious in Greater Manchester we just have not been conducting stop and searches in anything like the volume commensurate with a force our size,” he said in 2022.

Since then, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of ‘section 60’ powers under which police officers do not require suspicion to search someone. Last year the force carried out 8,963 stop searches resulting in 5,372 arrests and now the force has said it has improved training for all ranks in how to use the powers properly.