'Every day officers are being run ragged': GMP records busiest month in its history as heatwaves push police to the limit

On England's hottest day of the year so far, officers from Greater Manchester Police were out in force in Ashton-under-Lyne, some in plainclothes, some stationed by a facial recognition van, making 54 arrests across Tameside as part of Operation Avro.

It was a snapshot of a force under extraordinary pressure. GMP received a record-breaking 152,000 contacts from the public in July, the highest number ever recorded in a single month. The Met Office confirmed July was the hottest and driest month on record, and heatwaves have continued into August.

What is driving the surge?

Neighbourhood chief inspector James Grundy said: "These factors bring people outside, there's an increase in alcohol consumption, an increase in people going into reservoirs, into water. So that does increase the demand for police."

He added: "It is challenging. We have to attend incidents based on the threat, harm and risk, so we have to prioritise certain incidents over others, which means that some people don't often receive the level of response that they deserve."

How stretched are frontline officers?

PC Daniel Bragg, a response officer in Tameside for seven years, said this summer had been the busiest he had ever known, with the possible exception of New Year's Eve.

"Over the last few months, obviously with the World Cup, the sun, it's just non-stop," he said. "It was absolutely manic again last week, non-stop."

His team has been responding to up to 40 calls in a night shift. Typically that number would be between 10 and 20. "You're doubling or quadrupling that in one night," he said. "You are out of the station from 9 o'clock when a job comes in, and then you're coming back in at 7 o'clock really, just going job to job."

Neighbourhood sergeant Rob Froggatt said: "Every day police officers are being run ragged."

What do the numbers show?

GMP attended 14,991 grade 1 incidents (immediate emergencies) in July, with an average response time of seven minutes 54 seconds. They handled 10,266 grade 2 incidents (serious but non-immediate), averaging a response time of one hour and two minutes.

Tameside superintendent Arif Nawaz said: "When I look at the three-month period and compare it to the same three months last year, it's been a really significant increase. We're looking at around an extra 572 grade 2 incidents and an extra 272 grade 1 incidents. That effectively means my response teams have to deal with an extra seven grade 1s and 2s every single day."

Is Manchester's growth adding to the problem?

Nawaz said the city's rapid development also plays a role: "The Co-op Arena is a new site attracting 20,000 people each event. That's in addition to the AO Arena. So that's just one simple example of something that's great for the economy, but there's a policing demand."

What about the future?

Bragg warned: "I do think if it continues like this over the years to come, there would have to be a change just in terms of staffing. It's kind of impossible to police what we're policing at the minute."

Nawaz described the repeated heatwaves as "a very serious issue that as a society we need to consider, as a police service we need to consider."

Nationally, emergency call volumes increased by 11.5% year on year during July, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council.