Revealed: Figures show Greater Manchester Police cracking down on kids

Dear readers — we hope you had a lovely weekend.

In today’s briefing, we reveal that, according to the results of a Freedom of Information request we’ve just received, Greater Manchester Police is increasingly using force against suspects under 18. We also break down in which Greater Manchester wards children are more likely to experience force from police officers, tell the sorry tale of bus drivers getting lost as the Bee Network takes over school bus services in Marple and we recommend a fantastic upcoming exhibition at the Science and Industry Museum that takes a look at the legacy of transatlantic slavery in Manchester and its relationship to the city’s growth.

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Coming up, we have some analysis of how Greater Manchester’s infrastructure is going to cope with overheating and a dispatch from the gentrifying streets of Prestwich, which has just earned its first hedge-fund backed pseudo bakery, Gail’s. To receive all those stories in your inbox this week and support our work in 2025, please consider taking out a paid subscription by hitting the button below.

☁️ This week’s weather

Tuesday ☁️ Cloudy with intermittent light rain and drizzle. 6°C.

Wednesday 🌥️ Cloudy and chilly with a few bright spells. 6°C.

Thursday 🌦️ Breezy with showery light rain. 7°C.

Friday 🌧️ Windy with spells of heavy rain. 9°C.

Weekend 🌦️ Windy and relatively mild but remaining unsettled.

We get our weekly forecast from Manchester Weather.

Your briefing

👮 Greater Manchester Police has increased its use of force against under 18-year-olds in the past three years, The Mill can reveal. According to the results of our Freedom of Information request, since 2021 there has been a year-on-year rise in the police’s use of force against children whose perceived age is under 11 in Manchester, Oldham, Salford, Wigan and Bolton, some of Greater Manchester’s most deprived wards. The biggest rises were in Manchester and Bolton, where in Manchester use of force against children under 11 rose from six incidents in 2021 to 19 incidents in 2024, and in Bolton, incidents rose from three in 2021 to 14 in 2024. There’s also been a rise in the police’s use of force against children whose perceived age is between 11 and 17 in Manchester, Stockport and the area just outside the city centre police station. In 2021, the police used force against 11-17 year olds in Manchester on 805 occasions; this rose to 1,522 in 2024. Perhaps this is unsurprising: 2021 was the year the so-called ‘anti-woke’ police constable Stephen Watson took over GMP, pledging to increase the arrest rate and saying that police should focus on arresting criminals rather than “adulterating the uniform with pins and tabs and badges or whatever, and having all manner of florid social media accounts”. It’s worth noting that use of force encompasses a broad range of tactics, including firearms aimed, handcuffing, dogs deployed and irritant spray, and the data shows the highest proportion of use of force against children is “tactical communication” — when an officer shouts at a suspect to put their hands behind their back. The second highest proportion of use of force against children is compliant handcuffing, followed by non compliant handcuffing. A GMP spokesperson told us the force had taken an “increasingly proactive approach” which has led to more arrests and crimes being solved. “Crime has also reduced because of this – between 2023 and 2024 there were over 25,000 fewer crimes across GM.” The spokesperson added that in November 2023, the force introduced a dedicated superintendent responsible for a “child centred policing approach” and that in December 2024, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services rated GMP good or adequate in all areas relating to how the force protects children.

🎓 Medical students at the University of Manchester can be put on placement anywhere from Wythenshawe to Preston, but you’re considered exempt from being assigned a placement far away from Manchester if you’re part of an elite performance sports team, like men’s football or women’s netball, that requires you to train and compete regularly. Which sounds fair enough, right? However, it turns out you don’t qualify for exempt status if you’re on the women’s football team, even if you’re an elite football player who has played for Arsenal, like this anonymous student who told the Mancunion: “I gave up my elite football status for Medicine at Manchester”. A spokesperson for the University of Manchester said that going forward exempt status would be considered on an individual case-by-case basis, rather than the exemption applying to everyone on the men’s football team but no one on the women’s football team.

🚌 It’s been a big 2025 so far for the Bee Network, which finally took full control of all of the city’s buses at the start of this year, but not everyone is punching the air. Joe Barker, headteacher at Marple Hall school, says that since the Bee Network took over the school bus services on 5 January, some buses have been over 30 minutes late, some haven’t turned up at all and others have got lost on the way to school. “I don’t underestimate how complicated it must be to run a bus network and I am sure that colleagues at the network are working flat out,” he wrote in a letter to parents, adding that the service is “not good enough”. In a letter to the school, a TfGM customer casework officer apologised and said they expected punctuality to improve as bad weather eases and bus operators get used to new routes. Have you experienced any changes to your travel since all remaining bus services were brought under local control? Let us know in the comments.

🎨 The Guardian has announced that it will host a free exhibition and public engagement project at the Science and Industry Museum to “enhance public understanding of how transatlantic slavery shaped the city’s growth”. The exhibition will open in 2027 and will be shaped by the city’s communities, particularly those with Caribbean and African heritage, aiming to build awareness of the city’s historic links to slavery. More here.

Quick hits

🛄 Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammed Amaad, 25, the Rochdale brothers caught up in a violent altercation with three police officers at Manchester Airport in July, will appear on trial at Liverpool Crown Court on 13 February on charges of assault and causing actual bodily harm.

🏥 Achamma Cherian, the Oldham nurse who was stabbed by a member of the public while on duty in Royal Oldham Hospital, is now recovering at home with her family. Mohammed Roman Haque, 37, has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed item.

📈 Rent is rising fastest in Trafford and Stockport out of all of the Greater Manchester boroughs, rising by 14.4% in the last 12 months, followed by Tameside, where average rent went up by 13.1% over the last 12 months.

🍝 Osma, the Nordic restaurant that was praised in the 2024 Michelin Guide for its seasonal and local produce, has closed in Prestwich after the owners failed to find experienced staff.

🎰 Eyebrows were raised recently when 8XBet, the Dubai-based gambling company and Manchester City’s betting partner, seemingly disappeared overnight.

📰 Dalloul al-Neder, owner of the takeaway Royal Grill House in Burnage, says his cousin died in Gaza just hours before a ceasefire deal was agreed with Israel.

🏢 Tameside Council are advertising for foster carers on the dating app Grindr.

Home of the week

Because we went a little pricey on our pick last week, this week we’re featuring this extremely cute two-bed terrace in Northenden — going for a very reasonable £250,000.

Our favourite reads

In the middle of a stairway at a Longsight flat the phone began to ring - things were never the same again — The Manchester Evening News

Started in 1975 on a landline in activist Terry Waller’s flat in Longsight, the Manchester Gay Switchboard was a service gay and lesbian people could use for advice about coming out to family and friends. Now called LGBT Foundation, more than 250,000 people have called it for help, speaking for over 3.7 million minutes (according to its own registers). This is its story, as told by the MEN.

Denis Law, the first ‘King’ of Old Trafford — The Athletic

The Athletic pays tribute to the man George Best once called “The Demon King”, Dennis Law, who died aged 84 on Friday. Law arrived in England from Scotland aged 15, weighing eight stone and with a squint. He went on to become one of United’s all-time greats, immortalised in the Holy Trinity statue outside Old Trafford alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and Best. Aside from Best’s more menacing nickname, then-United manager Sir Matt Busby had his own way of describing Law: “An elf with a wallop.”

As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago – will he ever be released? — The Guardian

This piece from last year was written by one of our own (that is, Mill editor Sophie Atkinson). It investigates the case of John Wright, a man who went to prison under a potentially “never-ending sentence” in 2007. Wright was 17 at the time of his crime, headbutting and beating up another boy, before stealing his bike. While he might have expected to serve a few years at most, he was handed an indeterminate sentence: better known imprisonment for public protection (IPP). The sentences were abolished in 2012 but those serving them remained in prison. At the time of writing, John had been inside for 17 years.

Our to do list

Tuesday

📰 If you, like us, are constantly thinking about the state of local journalism, then tomorrow you can attend a talk by the Mayor of the State of Local Journalism himself — our very own Joshi Herrmann. Joshi will be giving a free talk, hosted by the Manchester Statistical Society, on the decline of local news. Register your attendance here.

🎻 And at 19:30, immersive classical concert series ‘Chamber’ will be hosting their second night at the Peer Hat, playing Kurtág, Beethoven, Clarke and more. Tickets cost £11 for three live performances.

Wednesday

🐍 Manchester Museum is kicking off the year of the snake with their Lunar New Year celebration: a multi-floor event with traditional Chinese music and dance, Malaysian and Taiwanese food, K-pop, C-pop, calligraphy, and ancient storytelling. This event is free and family-friendly — reserve your space here.

🧱 UrbanArtistry — a monthly series showcasing street art and graffiti documentaries — are hosting the UK premiers of JDL – Behind the wall. The documentary follows renowned street artist Judith de Leeuw as she paints a mural in Taranto, Southern Italy. The viewing is held at Cultplex Cinema, and tickets cost £5.50.

Thursday

🪧 For the next week (and a bit), the People’s History Museum are hosting a banner exhibition, reflecting significant historical campaigns, including anti-homelessness campaigns in the 1940s, and lesbians and gays supporting the striking miners in the 1980s. The event is free, but donations are welcome.

🌹 And we’re buzzing for this one: The Carlton Club have put together a new folk showcase, inventively titled ‘Folk’. The lineup features a number of our favourite local artists, including the incredible Jennifer Reid – whose songs Mill readers might recognise from our 2023 feature on Lancashire Dialect Poetry. £5, plus a booking fee.