How cops in Stockport are getting 'ahead of the game' as the town centre booms

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

"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. "Has something happened?" another passer-by asks. "That's what we want to get away from," Detective Inspector Mike Jiminez tells me afterwards. "That because we're here there must be a problem, we're here because we want to be out here and visible." Over 40 officers had just gathered in the town's iconic 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 Stockport 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. READ MORE: 'Our patience is exhausted' - Stockport's call for Metrolink gets louder following update from Andy Burnham READ MORE: He went to the pub to watch football with his mates...

but tragically never returned home 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. "I am Stockport lad, this is my town.

I would come to the town centre on most days. So it means something to me," he told the Manchester Evening News. It is a town that is undergoing a rapid transformation.