Cops hit the beat to keep boom town safe

"WHAT'S going on? Is it your works' Christmas dinner?" That was the wry comment from one elderly lady as streams of uniformed cops made their way out of Stockport Plaza and onto the streets of the town centre.

- CHRIS SLATER

"Has something happened?" another passerby asks.

"That's what we want to get away from," Detective Inspector Mike Jiminez says afterwards.

"That because we're here there must be a problem, we're here because we want to be out here and visible." More than 40 officers had just gathered in the town's landmark theatre for a briefing before heading out to locations across the town centre.

It is part of a day of action by officers on Operation Rimini, GMP's dedicated operation to tackle retail crime and anti-social behaviour in the town centre and Edgeley, as well as Operation Acquire, a force wide initiative that targets people suspected of committing offences such as robbery, burglary and vehicle crime.

Two of the officers leading the clampdown say the key to it has been 'getting more boots on the ground.

James Senior, a former Kingsway School pupil from Heald Green, became beat sergeant for the Stockport Central Neighbourhood Policing Team in June.

He said: "I am a Stockport lad, this is my town. I would come to the town centre on most days. So it means something to me."

It is a town undergoing a rapid transformation. A £1bn overhaul of the town centre is underway including a new £135m transport interchange, a new neighbourhood in and around the historic Weir Mill and new offices and business at Stockport Exchange, next to the station to name but a few. This will see thousands of people moving into and living in the town centre in the coming years.