Tweets on the beat: a day in the life of Manchester Police
Manchester Police are tweeting every incident they respond to in a 24 hour live blog as they try to highlight the amount of time officers spend “dealing with social problems”.
The Greater Manchester Police force is using a series of tweets to show the public every call its officers are responding to.
The live record, which began at 5am today, had logged more than 300 incidents within the first few hours.
Some of the incidents included “report of loose cows in Atherton”, “complaints about a man urinating against a school wall in Manchester”, “television found in Openshaw” and “a dog on the motorway at junction 24 on the M60”.
“I think that it’s time to start measuring performance in a different way.” Chief Constable Peter Fahy
Dozens of people were arrested in the first hours of the twitter feed, while officers had to field numerous accidental 999 calls from mobile phones or young children.
Chief Constable Peter Fahy said he wanted to show the public the type of incidents officers have to deal each day.
“Policing is often seen in very simple terms, with cops chasing robbers and locking them up. However the reality is that this accounts for only part of the work they have to deal with,” he said.
Social problems
“A lot of what we do is dealing with social problems such as missing children, people with mental health problems and domestic abuse.
“Often these incidents can be incredibly complex and need a lot of time, resource and expertise.
“I am not saying that we shouldn’t deal with these types of incidents, far from it, but what I am saying is that this work is not recognised in league tables and measurements – yet is a huge part of what we do.
“I think that it’s time to start measuring performance in a different way.”
Mr Fahy called for public sector money to be pooled together to be spent more effectively on tackling social problems.
“We see time and again the same families, the same areas and the same individuals causing the same problems and these people are causing a considerable drain to the public purse.
“Instead of the public sector organisations having separate pots of money we could spend it more efficiently if it were one big pot.”
The police force is facing huge budget cuts ahead of the Government’s spending review next week.