Road Policing Unit
See also: Tactical Vehicle Crime UnitGMP also operates a Road Policing Unit (RPU) responsible for all traffic policing in the county, which includes over 280 miles (450 km) of motorway. GMP RPU utilises a variety of vehicles, each with its own purpose. For general roads policing duties the service operates a number of BMW 3 Series Saloon and Estate vehicles which have replaced the previous use of the Vauxhall Vectra Saloon vehicles. The motorway unit operates both BMW X5 and Land Rover Discovery 4x4 vehicles. As well as liveried vehicles, GMP also operates a number of unmarked BMW and Audi vehicles which are used for general road policing and motorway duties. Previously the Motorway and the Motorcycle units stood separately, but in recent years both have been incorporated into the RPU's. BMW R1200RT-P motorcycles have recently replaced the Honda Pan-European ST 1100's & ill-fated ST 1300's. The RPU's are divided into three strategic units, based at RPU 1 Leigh, RPU 2 Hyde & RPU 3 Chadderton. Due to the constraints on budgets and the latested review, it is envisaged that the Road Policing Unit will lose a further 78 officers and be restructured/reduced to two RPU's. This will reduce the strength of the RPU to only 100 officers over a 5 shift system providing only 20 officers per shift to cover the police area.
During the 1990s, the GMP's area had a high rate of car crime. To combat this the Tactical Vehicle Crime Unit was formed which in 2010 was replaced by Vortex,which is based at Stretford Police Station.
In June 2011, The Tactical Vehicle Crime Unit was re formed under the slightly different name, Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit and later renamed "ANPR Intercepters". The unit continues to utilise various high performance unmarked vehicles and a fleet of 12 liveried BMW 330's to combat serious and organised criminals using the road network.
Read more about this topic: Greater Manchester Police, GMP Units
Famous quotes containing the words road, policing and/or unit:
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”
—J.R.R. (John Ronald Revel)
“Some days your hat’s off to the full-time mothers for being able to endure the relentless routine and incessant policing seven days a week instead of two. But on other days, merely the image of this woman crafting a brontosaurus out of sugar paste and sheet cake for her two-year-old’s birthday drives a stake through your heart.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“During the Suffragette revolt of 1913 I ... [urged] that what was needed was not the vote, but a constitutional amendment enacting that all representative bodies shall consist of women and men in equal numbers, whether elected or nominated or coopted or registered or picked up in the street like a coroner’s jury. In the case of elected bodies the only way of effecting this is by the Coupled Vote. The representative unit must not be a man or a woman but a man and a woman.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)