TAMESIDE has its second police chief in the space of a year after Chief Superintendent Rob Cousen was moved.
Now Chief Supt Phil Davies is the man in charge as district commander – and after six years leading the Greater Manchester force’s digital policing strategy, he could not wait to return to frontline policing.
Over 24 years, he has served the police in Greater Manchester and Humberside, as well as London with the Metropolitan Police.
He has also been involved in national counter-terrorism work.
Chief Supt Davies’ time at GMP has seen him work as head of the external relations and performance branch, Superintendent in command of the specialist policing operation at Manchester Airport, be in charge of neighbourhood policing in Bolton and leading operations in Trafford.
As well as that, he has helped redesign the policing model for GMP and improved technology in policing.
Chief Supt Davies also describes himself as ‘regularly involved in public order command for sporting events and strategic firearms command in Greater Manchester.’
He has some act to follow in Chief Supt Cousen, who boosted arrest rates in his home borough by 30 per cent in a short space of time.
And as he told The Correspondent, a lot of that was down it winding the clock back and going to more old school policing.
He said: “We’re bringing more people into the custody office, putting bellies up against the counter and holding people to account.
“I’m working hard to see how we can efficiencies can be put into the system, so we can get more people out on the beat doing the bobbying I did many years ago.
“I asked all police officers to do this and we had a month of looking and seeing. Some things you think, ‘We’re going to deal with that here and now,’ some we’re going to have to build in gradually.
“It’s about getting back to the basics. Winding back the clock and doing the things we do best. It’s about us working closely with the local authority.
“We’ve been letting too many people down by not getting to their calls for service. We’ve not been doing the basics of policing as well as we should be doing.
“Criminals will be frightened. We’ll be kicking the doors in, we’ll have bellies up against the counter and we’ll absolutely make Tameside a safer place for everybody.
“If we get this right, it’s about building public trust and confidence. I don’t think it could be any lower in general.
“Our purpose is very clear, focus on the basics. Fight, prevent and reduce crime. Keep people safe and care for people.
“Even in just a week and a half, we reduced our incident demand. We’re getting to the point where we can really meet the needs of our communities and help people cope and recover in their time of need.”
Chief Supt Cousen, who grew up in the Smallshaw area of Ashton, is believed to be working in a different area of the borough after his short stint in Tameside.
And a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police told The Correspondent: “I can confirm Rob Cousen has moved and Chief Superintendent Phil Davies will be taking over the position in Tameside.”
What a load of rubbish
I’ve been reporting on a cannabis grow in my street for nearly 2 months and it absolutely stinks outside.
Yet GMP at Ashton have done nothing at all.
What a complete let down by GMP.
They say they tackle crime
They don’t seem to want to protect anybody