News
Editorial WELCOME to the ‘Spring’ edition of Brief, a special commemorative issue celebrating 40 years of GMP. When GMP was formed on 1 April 1974 you could expect to pay just 40p for a gallon of petrol. Today you’d pay around £1.28 for a litre of petrol that’s just 0.22 of a gallon! Things have certainly changed since the 1970s and in this issue we look back at the last 40 years as well as ‘Project 40’ that is looking ahead to the future. See pages 13 to 21. Turning to our features, mental health is a key priority and an issue that has been raised by staff during the Chief Constable’s road shows. There is a lot of great work going on around the Force and former Supt Dave Wilkinson is now working with the NHS and other agencies to bring much of this work together. You can read more about this on page 5. Along with many other forces, cyber crime is also on GMP’s agenda. With an increase in crimes being committed on the internet Det Supt Mark Smith is heading a cyber crime team to tackle these crimes and they’ve already had a number of successes. Whether you use the Internet yourself or have children who use the Internet, it is well worth a read – see page 9. Also, Lauren Taylor who recently joined the Force as senior PR officer caught up with Jim Jones from the Firearms and Explosive Licensing Unit. Did you know that the unit deals with all types of licenses whether it’s for clay pigeon shooting, hunting or just target practise. Read all about it on page 32. Finally, the Internal Communications Team is always looking for new stories. You can either contact one of us using the contact details below, or contact your divisional or branch ‘communicator’ who will be able to forward stories to us. For further details visit the Corporate Communications Branch Intranet site. Editorial team Catherine Barlow
Patricia Jones and Melissa Mead
We hope you enjoy this special edition!
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Force leading the way in social media
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Joint approach to mental health
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Wellbeing at work
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Introducing GMP’s Frontline Champion for the College of Policing
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Hattrick of awards for Op Alloy
11 Chief Constable explains how the Force is getting ‘Fit for the Future’ 12 Laptops issued to response officers Celebrating 40 years of GMP
14 Timeline of key events from 1974 2014 20 The birth of GMP a look back at 1974 21 Down memory lane 22 Your memories from the last 40 years 27 Remembering colleagues who have lost their lives over the last 40 years Features
28 Recruiting to represent our communities 29 Cyber unit tackles new crime frontier 30 Sunrise team tackling CSE in Rochdale 32 Focus on the gun licensing team GMP Community
34 Letters of appreciation 37 Running to remember PC Nicola Hughes
Guest contributors
39 Staff chip in to help Megan
Lauren Taylor Lauren is Senior PR Officer within the GMP Corporate Communications Branch. She joined the Force in January 2014 having previously worked within public relations and brand management, with a number of commercial and public sector clients. Alison Etherden Alison works in the Press Office at GMP and joined from a PR consultancy in January 2013. She previously worked at Hertfordshire Constabulary as a Press and PR Officer. Andy Shaw Andy is a sergeant in Salford’s Partnership Team. He has worked at HQ but the majority of his service has been in Salford where he has worked on response and as a sergeant in the Hub.
Contact us
Editorial team: Catherine Barlow, Melissa Mead and Patricia Jones Photographers: Chris Oldham and Bill Morris 0161 856 2777 | Picture Desk: Lisa Marks 0161 856 2279 Designed and produced by: Corporate Communications, Force Headquarters, Central Park, M40 5BP Contact numbers: 0161 856 856 5939 / 2238 / 5938 Email: Brief@gmp.police.uk Brief online: www.gmp.police.uk/Brief
Articles and contributions for the next edition of Brief should be submitted by
Deadline date Friday 16 May