Women’s Equality Party Greater Manchester calls for GM Mayor Andy Burnham to publish his plan to root out institutional misogyny and racism in GMP after horrifying revelations in the Baird Report.
Unlawful arrests and detention, the weaponisation of strip searches to humiliate and degrade, fictitious, missing and inaccurate entries in custody reports, abhorrent treatment of vulnerable people, the police effectively enabling domestic abuse perpetrators to coercively control their victims.
The Baird Report published on 18th July 2024 is important. It exposes some of the truly terrifying ways a police culture of impunity and police abuse of power plays out for women, and members of the public.
Barbara Guest, campaign lead for Women’s Equality Party Greater Manchester said:
“Reading this report is truly shocking. How can women be expected to trust the police in the face of such widespread failings across almost all police divisions in Greater Manchester? In fact, it is clear that for the participants in this report – and their families – the actions of GMP have totally destroyed their trust in the police.
“GMP are failing in even their most basic duty to consider whether an arrest is actually necessary, and Dame Vera Baird wonders whether the Chief Constable, Stephen Watson’s, strategic focus to double the number of arrests in the region is acting as a driver for this. This implied criticism is not new.[i]
“In fact, little in the Baird Report is new. It reveals itself as another unwelcome piece in the jigsaw of inspections, reviews and reports over several years, which together expose the scale of institutional misogyny and racism in Greater Manchester Police”.[ii]
The report provides further evidence of a broken culture that not only sees these behaviours happen but happen repeatedly, and with no evidence that officers fear any consequences for their actions. GM Mayor Andy Burnham referred to a ‘problematic culture’ in GMP in his press conference. He fell short of naming that problem.
We know there is institutional misogyny, racism, homophobia and abuse of power embedded in the police, and these findings are a manifestation of it. Until Andy Burnham acknowledges that truth, these issues will never be resolved.
The Women’s Equality Party Greater Manchester supports the Baird Report’s recommendations, and is pleased to see the Mayor accept them and move to end harmful strip- searching practices. But this is bigger than strip searches and bigger than GMP.
The party urges Andy Burnham to:
- publicly acknowledge institutional misogyny and racism in Greater Manchester Police – without recognition of the systemic nature of this issue there cannot be successful resolution
- publish his plan to root out misogyny, racism and other forms of discrimination in Greater Manchester Police, providing full transparency of the measures to be taken and the progress made
- bring in external expertise to help drive organisational cultural change across Greater Manchester Police
- clarify GMP policies regarding the availability, use and storage of CCTV in custody facilities and of Body Worn Video (BWV) recordings during arrest and detention, as well as in police vans during transportation of detainees
Carmen Wood-Hope, WEP local election candidate in Weaste and Seedley, Salford said:
“The Baird Report relates to GMP but it requires the attention of the new Home Secretary.
The government, police, and Police and Crime Commissioners must stop tinkering around the edges. You cannot change huge institutional issues like this without a radical overhaul. We need to build a new system of policing that truly serves the public, and we need to centre the experiences of the people most failed in building it”.
