Response to reports of incidents and threats - Greater Manchester Police, July 2017

On 14 July 2017 Greater Manchester Police (GMP) received a call from a man threatening to assault a shopkeeper. The call handler spoke with the man and he agreed to go home to wait for the police to arrive. Due to a lack of resources and the man’s availability, GMP were unable to send an officer out to deal with the incident until the afternoon of 17 July 2017.

An officer went to the shop at 2pm on 17 July and spoke to the son of the shopkeeper, who stated that his father was in hospital with an injury, and that the issue was now resolved. The officer was still unable to speak to the man who had made the threats of assault, and requested that this was followed up by the control room.

At 9.40pm the same day, GMP received a 999 call from a woman reporting that there was a man at her shop being threatening with a knife. Officers attended and arrested the man, who happened to be the man who had made the threats. The officers were then made aware that the man had assaulted the shopkeeper on 15 July.

During the investigation, investigators reviewed the action board entries, spoke to various witnesses, including call handlers and radio operators, and reviewed local policies.

We found that the repeated delays in going to see the man who initially contacted police were due to a lack of resources, with emergency incidents taking priority.

We were unable to establish with any degree of certainty whether police attendance would have prevented the injury to the shopkeeper.

Based on the evidence available, we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.

After reviewing our report, the force agreed with our views.