Local community responds to GMP's Operation Vulcan in Derker - initiative hasn’t come a day too soon

A little girl, aged maybe 11 or 12 years old, stands up in front of a room full of police officers and asks nervously: “What do I do if someone is bringing drugs to school?”

The little girl lives in Derker, Oldham.

For years, the town has been racked by crime and anti-social behaviour.

One senior police officer previously described the area as the ‘Wild West’.

Spates of gun shootings, open-air drug dealing and signs of organised crime have left local residents feeling permanently ‘on edge’.

And for a long time, there was a feeling the town had been ‘forgotten’ by local authorities.

But last month, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) launched Operation Vulcan in Derker.

Previously rolled out in Cheetham Hill and Piccadilly Gardens, the specialist mission targets hotbeds of criminal activity.

A sustained program of police raids, observations, stop & searches and crime prevention initiatives, alongside work with Oldham Council and local community groups, is supposed to send a clear message to the neighbourhood’s crime bosses.

And it is yielding results. In just four weeks of deployment, police officers in Derker have made 25 arrests, seized 21 vehicles including e-bikes, uncovered £50k worth of class A and B drugs and seized £11k of illegally earned cash.

Its success, GMP noted, hinges on the local residents.

At its community launch event held at Mayfield Primary School a few weeks ago, detective superintendents and community officers called on the neighbourhood to support the mission by reporting anything they witnessed.

The event was well-visited by a varied group of concerned Derker residents, including the little girl worried about kids taking drugs to school.

It’s clear the initiative hasn’t come a day too soon.

Speaking to residents at the event, crime and anti-social behaviour has become so rife, many weren’t willing to give their name, for fear it might result in repercussions from organised crime groups and ‘bad characters’.

“I don’t let my girls play out unsupervised anymore,” one dad shared with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“There’s a lovely green right opposite us, I can see it from my window.

“But you just don’t know what they’ll find there if they go on their own.”

Another family described how a man had ‘almost hopped straight into our barbecue’ when jumping backyard fences to flee police.

“But dad shouted at him and got rid of him,” their youngest daughter giggled.

Her mum, Louise, was more sombre: “It’s exciting for them because they don’t really understand.

"But [as parents] it makes us nervous.

"It makes you feel unsafe, as a family.

"I really hope this makes a difference.”

A number of residents claimed to have seen signs of serious crime – young men flaunting huge blades as they sped past in flashy sports cars, drug dealing in alleyways, break-ins.

Others argued it was mostly the more visible anti-social behaviour that was a daily nuisance.

“It’s the lads on bikes, kids banging on the windows at 2.30 in the morning, cars speeding by,” one resident, 61, who has lived in Derker for six years, said.

“But you can’t say anything to them.

"They either laugh at you, or they pull a knife out on you.”

She described how she’d witnessed two boys on e-bikes stopped in a residential alley-way.

“They hopped back onto the bike, and one went to pull his top down – and you could see there were a knife stuck in the back of his trackies.”

She held her hands about twelve inches apart to indicate the size of the blade.

“It’s annoying though, because when you try to tell people, they don’t seem to want to know.

"Hopefully that’s changing now.”

Another elderly resident shared: “I almost got taken out by a boy on an e-bike the other day.

"He whizzed past me and just missed me by inches.

"Scared the living daylights out of me.”

The e-scooters could be the tip of an organised crime ice berg, according to GMP.

They worry many of the kids are being lured into criminal activity in exchange for the bikes – which can cost around £5,000.

The concern for the police and neighbourhood is that smaller-scale offences could be part of a broader picture of ‘untouchable crime families’ and county lines.

Detective Superintendent Jen Kelly, who leads Operation Vulcan, previously told the LDRS: “There is a criminal undercurrent where some people seem to control the streets and what is happening in and around Derker.

"There are individuals intent on committing crimes, plying their trade and causing disorder and upset for people who live there.

“What we are being told is that you have long-standing crime families who I believe feel untouchable.

"When we arrive they will know we are there.

"We are having zero-tolerance robust policing.

"Plus the local cops have great local knowledge and are invaluable to us.”

Operation Vulcan is also a trust-building exercise.

For years the neighbourhood has felt like ‘nothing is being done’ to tackle crime in the area.

And as a result a lot of criminal activity goes under-reported to official channels.

“I saw a man breaking into my neighbour’s house,” one resident, 53, told the LDRS. 

“And I did call police for that. In fairness, they did come out but he’d already run off by then.

“But for smaller stuff I often don’t [report it] because it feels like nothing really happens.”

Lorraine Kenny, head of community safety at Oldham Council, believes the operation will go a long way in rebuilding the trust between police and residents.

“For me it’s about actually building that confidence in communities to work with us,” Kenny said.

“We know there are individuals living here that think they control the narrative.

"But actually 99.9 percent of residents are decent, law abiding citizens, we know that they’re having their lives ruined by individuals.

“They need the firm message that this type of behaviour won’t be tolerated.”

St James councillor Angela Cosgrove, who lives in Derker, added: “It’s reassurance that something will happen when we call.

"For far too long we haven’t had that. It’s been a nightmare living here.

“We’ve already seen some action.

"So hopefully it will make a real difference.”

Not everyone was convinced.

Two local women stormed out half way through the GMP’s Q&A after heckling the officers over the ‘lack of action’ up until now.

But most said the action taken so far was ‘very promising’.

“This is very positive,” Jason Howard, 51, a long-term resident, said.

The local postie and proud grandad of two said he currently ‘doesn’t feel safe’ when taking the kids out in Derker.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the change," he added.

"And getting it back to how it used to be, when you could walk the streets and feel safe.”

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