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Greater Manchester Police ("GMP") is the Home Office police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, in North West England.

The Force headquarters is at Chester House in Manchester. The Force was formed in 1974 after leaving the Lancashire Constabulary and amalgamating with Manchester and Salford Police and certain areas of Lancashire and Cheshire counties.

GMP employs 8,167 Police Officers, 380 volunteer Special Constables, 3,769 members of support staff and 270 community support officers^[1] (soon to be 1,000 community support officers). It is (narrowly) the third largest force in terms of organisation size in England and Wales after the West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police in London.

The Force is currently headed by the Chief Constable, Michael J. Todd, and each division is headed by a Chief Superintendent who is known as the divisional commander.

Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on February 6, 2006, which proposed the mergers of many other forces, Greater Manchester would stay as a standalone strategic police force.^[2]

The Force also has its own newspaper and is distributed to thousands of officers, making "The Brief" one of the largest in circulation. Each 20 page issue has a mix of news about police initiatives, policies and crime successes, in-depth articles on specialist units, social and sports news, as well as regular features. The slogan for Greater Manchester Police is: Fighting Crime, Protecting People.

Uniform and equipment

Uniformed officers when on duty carry a handheld encrypted Police radio (made by Sepura) which makes use of TETRA technology, on their duty belt they carry: an expandable baton which has recently been switched from the Monadnock PR-24 Baton to the now Monadnock Autolock Baton, CS spray, hiatt speedcuff rigid handcuffs,^[3] a first aid pouch (containing: Medical gloves, CPR mask and Antiseptic wipes) and are required to wear a stab/ballistic proof vest whilst on operational duties.

Divisions & Departments

Greater Manchester Police is split into a number of geographical divisions, each corresponding to a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester (except for Manchester itself which has 3 divisions), which provide local patrols and investigate crime:

North Manchester (A) Division (which includes Manchester City Centre)
Metropolitan (B) Division
South Manchester (C) Division
Salford (F) Division
Tameside (G) Division
Stockport (J) Division
Bolton (K) Division
Wigan (L) Division
Trafford (M) Division
Bury (N) Division
Rochdale (P) Division
Oldham (Q) Division

City Centre Policing

GMP has rolled out a Neighbourhood Policing Structure in Manchester City Centre. The City Centre area (also known as A1) now consists of;

City 1 - Gay Village
City 2 - Castlefield
City 3 - Chinatown
City 4 - Piccadilly Gardens & Northern Quarter
City 5 - Southern Gateway (Covering parts of Oxford Road and the Student Village)
City 6 - Business & Commercial District

Private Finance Initiatives

GMP in partnership with project investors Equion Facilities Management (a division of John Laing plc) has recently been given 17 brand new facilities to act as Police Stations across the Greater Manchester area. In light of these changes, certain Police Stations have been replaced by their newer counter-parts.

Other Departments

In addition, the S, V and X departments provide specialist support force-wide, e.g. the air support unit (call sign "India 99") flying a McDonnell Douglas MD902 Explorer helicopter, which is of NOTAR design (NOTAR stands for NO TAil Rotor (capitals in previous are deliberate)) (based at Barton Aerodrome), and a Britten-Norman BN-2B-26 Islander fixed-wing aircraft (call sign "India 66", presently based at Manchester Airport but will be relocated to Barton if and when a hard runway is constructed there), traffic and motorway patrol units, firearms units, police dogs, communications services, as well units specialising in serious crime and major incidents. GMP is also responsible for policing Manchester Airport.

During the 1990s, GMP had one of the worst rates of car crime in the UK. A specialist unit was set up in the mid 1990s and has operated ever since, going by the call sign "sierra" or T.A.S.U, (Tactical Vehicle Crime Unit) they operate high performance pursuit vehicles that can keep up to most of today's cars on the road. Car crime has halved since the early 1990s partly due to this unit.

The force also has an Anti-Terrorism Unit, which sits in Special Branch and has carried out several operations since being formed in April 2005.

Tactical Firearms Unit

Officers, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, are not routinely armed, although the force does have a specialised department of armed response teams (known as the Tactical Firearms Unit), who drive vehicles called Armed Response Vehicles (ARV) whose officers carry MP5 carbines, Glock handguns, and TASER electronic incapacitation devices.

External links

References

^ "About GMP FAQs". 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
^ "Police mergers outlined by Clarke". 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
^ "A History of Greater Manchester Police" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-06-05.

[1] "About GMP FAQs". 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-05.

[2] "Police mergers outlined by Clarke". 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-05.

[3] "A History of Greater Manchester Police" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-06-05.

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 ==Uniform and equipment==
 {{detail|Uniforms and equipment of the British police}}
-Uniformed officers when on duty carry a handheld encrypted Police radio (made by [[Sepura]]) which makes use of [[Airwave TETRA]] technology, on their [[Police duty belt|duty belt]] they carry: an expandable [[Club (weapon)|baton]] which has recently been switched from the Monadnock PR-24 Baton to the now Monadnock Autolock Baton, [[CS gas|CS spray]], [[Hiatt rigid  Speedcuffs|hiatt speedcuff]],ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gmp.police.uk/mainsite/0/1A2F40969DD55F7880257176003AD2C9/$file/GMPHistory74-04.pdf |title= A History of Greater Manchester Police |accessdate=2007-06-05 |format=PDF}}</ref> a [[First aid kit|first aid pouch]] (''containing: [[Medical gloves]], [[CPR mask]] and [[Antiseptic]] wipes'') and are required to wear a [[Bulletproof vest|stab/ballistic proof vest]] whilst on operational duties.
+Uniformed officers when on duty carry a handheld encrypted Police radio (made by [[Sepura]]) which makes use of [[TETRA]] technology, on their [[Police duty belt|duty belt]] they carry: an expandable [[Club (weapon)|baton]] which has recently been switched from the Monadnock PR-24 Baton to the now Monadnock Autolock Baton, [[CS gas|CS spray]], [[Hiatts Speedcuffs|hiatt speedcuff]] rigid [[handcuffs]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gmp.police.uk/mainsite/0/1A2F40969DD55F7880257176003AD2C9/$file/GMPHistory74-04.pdf |title= A History of Greater Manchester Police |accessdate=2007-06-05 |format=PDF}}</ref> a [[First aid kit|first aid pouch]] (''containing: [[Medical gloves]], [[CPR mask]] and [[Antiseptic]] wipes'') and are required to wear a [[Bulletproof vest|stab/ballistic proof vest]] whilst on operational duties.
 ==Divisions & Departments==