Last week, the force’s average 999 answering time was as low as one second.

Greater Manchester Police has seen huge improvements in their call handling times – last week taking an average of just one second to answer 999 emergency calls.

It marks quite a change from June 2021, when callers were waiting up to 89 seconds for an answer from the FCC.

Call handling was one of the reasons the force had been put into enhanced monitoring in December 2020. Last October, a number of improvements including response to the public as well as accuracy in recording crime saw inspectors removing GMP from that process.  

The force will be assessed again this year.

Back in June 2021, GMP were placed 43rd in the national league table for emergency calls answered – today they are placed 4th.

The force has seen the recruitment of an additional 220 people into call handling roles as well as a new incident response policy which allows for better prioritisation of calls and co-ordination of response.

Also in the pipeline is the development of a new Force Crime Management Unit – to sit within the Force Contact Centre (now renamed Force Contact, Crime and Operations Branch or FCCO). The Unit will be task with consistently recording, investigating, finalising and quality assuring crimes.

ACC Chris Sykes lead for GMP’s FCCO, said: “The last year has really shone a light on the extraordinary efforts of our workforce and their determination to provide better service for our communities and the people who need it most. I am incredibly proud of their accomplishments.

"Our FCCO will reduce the investigative demand on our frontline responders, improve our standards of investigation and increase victim confidence and trust in GMP”.