More than £150k stripped from criminals redistributed to good causes

More than £150,000 has been stripped from criminals and used for good causes in Oldham as the borough’s top cop says an improved Greater Manchester Police is arresting more people.

Chief Superintendent Chris Bowen, District Commander for Oldham, gave an update to councillors in which he listed a number of ways that GMP is better tackling crime in the borough.

This included 1,562 offences this year resulting in a charge or court summons, an increase of 549 compared to the previous 12 months.

Chief Supt Bowen added that arrests by the force had also risen by 51pc, with domestic abuse arrests increasing by 58pc in Oldham.

The use of civil powers, including domestic violence protection notices, had increased with 159 being issued.

He told councillors they had also been able to use the  asset recovery programme ‘proactively’ to redistribute more than £150k of criminal assets to good causes in Oldham

This has funded a new vehicle for the mountain rescue team, new drainage systems at Fitton Hill Bulldogs Rugby team, ‘extensive’ refurbishments at the Yuvanis youth based project at the Old Chadderton library as well as projects at Madhlo and other youth organisations, he added.

The region’s police force was placed in special measures in December, 2020, after a report revealed an estimated 80,000 crimes had not been properly recorded.

However, in October of this year it was announced that the force has been taken out of special measures after making progress under its new Chief Constable, Stephen Watson.

Chief Supt Bowen told a meeting of Oldham’s full council they were making ‘significant strides in the right direction’.

“But I’m not going to sit here and tell you everything is sorted, because it’s not. But I will tell you the progress we are making,” he said.

“You will have said you can’t get through, you ring three nines and no one answers the phone, you ring 101 and no-one answers the phone.

“I can tell you now that 999 call answering times in Greater Manchester are the fastest they have been in the last two years.

“Our non-emergency speed of answer is now also operating on average less than two minutes.”

A response to grade two – non emergency – calls had been reduced from an average of 16 hours down to three hours, Chief Supt Bowen said.

“We are consistently getting to over 85pc of grade one emergencies within the 15 minute target provided by the government.

"And the vast majority of the ones outside the 85pc are narrowly missed.”

He added: “When I arrived in Oldham we had circa 6,500 open crimes being investigated.

“I can tell you today we are at 3,100 which is a reduction of over 50 pc which means we are doing positive investigations to crimes in a proportionate, effective and timely way for our communities and all crime is proportionately investigated.”

Councillors heard that ‘proactive’ drugs warrants in the community are now done on a weekly basis, and the use of stop-and-search powers has increased in Oldham by more than 400 pc in the last 12 months.

Chief Supt Bowen said officers’ increased use of the powers, ‘that for various reasons they’d lost confidence in using for a number of years’, had not generated any extra complaints.

“Because they’ve been used appropriately and proactively arrested criminals taking them off the street before they are able to commit crime,” he added.

The meeting also heard that from March, each ward would have a dedicated neighbourhood officer, who would not be transferred away except in severe regional emergencies. 

Council leader Amanda Chadderton said the improvements, specifically in terms of responsiveness to residents, had been ‘impressive’.

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