Police making 'unnecessary' arrests - ex-detective

Police are still unnecessarily arresting victims of crime, a former detective has claimed.

Maggie Oliver said although a review found cases of "unwise, unnecessary and unlawful" detention by Greater Manchester Police and called for urgent changes, the practice continued.

She suggested chief constable Stephen Watson's pledge to make more arrests might be behind officers' decisions to make arrests where they were not needed.

A force spokesperson said officers were being trained on a "revised voluntary attendance policy".

July's review was commissioned by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and carried out by Dame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales.

She recommended police to make greater use of voluntary interviews rather than arrests.

A woman who was arrested in September after she repeatedly criticised police officers on social media told the BBC her detention had been "completely unnecessary", since she had already freely agreed to attend a police station.

Her posts on X labelled named officers as "corrupt" and "prejudiced" against both women and victims of crime.

She told the BBC she believed her subsequent arrest had been an attempt to "gag" her.

GMP declined to comment on the specifics of a complaint that was under investigation.

Jessie, whose name we have changed for legal reasons, criticised GMP after she reported being raped in September 2023.

She alleged the subsequent police investigation had been full of "errors" and "poor practice".

In September 2024, Jessie said she received a call from officers who came to her house in Salford while she was at work.

Jessie claimed one of the officers told her: "If you don't play ball, Jessie, we'll put your door in."

She said: "My heart was beating out of my chest, I was just terrified."

Jessie said she agreed to go to Swinton police station after work to speak to officers.

Once there, however, she said she was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications and held for six hours before being questioned about her posts on X.

"It was completely, completely unnecessary," Jessie said.

"I'd self-presented, I didn't need to be arrested.

"The man that sexually abused me and assaulted me was never arrested.

"He was asked to attend a voluntary interview, and yet I'm criticising GMP for not doing their job properly and I get arrested."

A GMP spokesperson said the force was "intent on protecting victims and bringing offenders to justice by investigating all crime".

They added: "This particularly includes supporting survivors of sexual abuse, with almost 3,000 suspected offenders being arrested this year alone and twice as many rape survivors receiving justice compared to three years ago."

Dame Vera's review found many of the 14 arrests it had examined had been "unnecessary" and "unlawful".

She concluded that "it is in the interests of the force and the public for that to stop".

Her review recommended more training for officers about the use of voluntary interviews "in cases at the lower levels of alleged criminality".

She said such interviews were an alternative to arrests, which were "a harmful use of power".

"It feels like what's changed out of the Baird review is just superficial," Jessie said.

"It's just a tick-box exercise - they've just scraped the surface."

After her arrest, Jessie said she initially had to agree to bail conditions which banned her from posting on any social media site, and from contacting GMP except in an emergency or through a solicitor.

These restrictions were subsequently reviewed and relaxed by magistrates.

In December, Jessie was advised no further action would be taken against her.

Maggie Oliver said there was now "a willingness" from GMP to engage when concerns were brought to their attention.

But she said "many people are being arrested unnecessarily".

"It's far easier for them to lock somebody up and get a tick in a box for malicious communications or naughty words on Facebook, when rapists and serial sexual abusers and seriously violent people are not being arrested, or are being kept on months and months of bail," she said.

Veronica Ní Strathin, from the advocacy group Project Peel which has been providing support for Jessie, said her arrest was "astonishing" in light of the Baird review's findings, adding "it is quite clear that there is little or no will at GMP to change these practices".

She added: "The lives of already traumatised victims are being devastated by these arrests."

The GMP spokesperson said the force was working with national trainers to "ensure all officers are trained to recognise and respond to the effects of domestic and sexual trauma on survivors".

Jessie acknowledged the police may have had legitimate reasons to want to talk to her about her posts but said "they [officers] could have rung me or made an appointment or asked me to remove the tweets - they didn't".

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