Back to basics: Top cop's strategy to tackle crime

Three-point ‘trust’ plan for area hit by burglaries and knifepoint robberies

- ETHAN DAVIES

“IT would be lovely when the only thing that we have to worry about in Stockport is incredibly low level offending. I’ll never be happy, but I’ll be more content.”

John Webster is the new Chief Superintendent and Divisional Commander of GMP Stockport.

He’s speaking in his Cheadle Heath police station office, which features two wall-mounted whiteboards.

Both of them are covered with suggestions on where resources should be directed, which parts of the borough need certain kinds of action and internal reviews.

However, all the spider diagrams, bullet points and maps point to one central idea: Back to basics.

That’s the focus of Mr Webster, who has been brought in as part of a shake-up instigated by new Chief Constable, Stephen Watson.

Watson himself was brought in to turn the ailing GMP around – with the now-infamous HMIC report blasting the country’s second-largest force for failing to record 80,000 crimes in a single year.

As part of Watson’s drive to revamp the service, he has reinstated an old policy – having one divisional commander for each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs – which is where John Webster comes in.