I'll be your voice - by Chairman Stu Berry

2 July 2018

GMP Federation Chair Stu Berry says there are challenging times ahead and that he is looking forward to tackling officers' concerns. To see more from the GMP Federation 2017 Annual Report visit; http://online.pubhtml5.com/ncsw/tnbs/

I am delighted to have been elected as Chairman of Greater Manchester Police Federation.

We have the best officers in the country and I am so proud to now be their voice publicly, representing them with the media and chief officers over the coming years.

It’s a challenging time for policing and I am under no illusions about the nature of the task ahead.

I am looking forward to continuing to speak to and visit my colleagues, keeping in touch with the officers who have elected me and listening to their concerns.

Rising Demand

One of the biggest issues facing policing is that there are not enough staff to meet the demand we face.

If we don’t rapidly the increase the numbers of officers we have, we will have to rapidly decrease the amount of things that we can respond to.

That might mean we’re not able to police events like Parklife. Events like that are unfortunately a luxury.

For me, not policing it would send out a message about the situation we are in. Otherwise, we will still be talking about this in 10 years’ time.

Rest Day Risks

Operation Custodian, where the city centre is policed by cancelling the rest days of officers from around the force, is one example of how stretched we are.

People living in Oldham or Wigan want the Council Tax precepts they’re paying to go on officers on their streets.

But we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul by cancelling rest days that have to be given back at a later date. It’s a struggle to get the days off back and police officers don’t get like for like, leading to more officer fatigue.

I will be working hard to make a difference We can have 6,000 cops behind the Federation to help us negotiate change.

Decisions Affect Everyone

I believe there are some decisions which we need to work at to get reversed. We have been reduced by 2,000 officers but when a Constable gets promoted to Sergeant the force imposes an NVQ on them.

We shouldn’t be spending money on training an officer for something they might use when they leave. Let’s spend it on officers now, they are desperate.

We’re brilliant in this Federation at dealing with individuals and individual officers on a case by case basis.

I think we need to ensure we can negotiate the big things too, the things that affect every one of us.