Unfortunately though, Greater Manchester Police have once again not released monthly crime data for the 13th month in a row. This means for anyone checking for crime in the area of Greater Manchester and their 270 neighbourhoods, relevant constituencies and postcodes over the last 12 months, they will be seeing zero crime which is obviously not the case.
I have just written to the Home Secretary and Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester to ask for their help in getting this data released as this has gone on too long.
This is actually a good example of where a Police Crime Commisioner – if Manchester had one – would work much better. Thee PCC would be directly accountable for the monthly release and quality of crime data within their respective Force. Alas, Manchester doesn’t have one, having dispensed of the role in 2012 with the responsibility given over to the Mayor. The Home Office don’t seem to be on top of it either. So perhaps it’s time to bring the role back with a clear mandate to answer to the release of this data?
You can always track the progress of crime data released here amongst the 44 Forces – the unchanging excuse by GMP offered is not underwhelming “Due to a change in IT systems no crime, outcome or stop and search data is available from July 2019 onwards. The force are working to rectify this issue and provide the missing data over the coming months.” – a message that hasn’t changed in over a year.