Chris Slater spent a day on patrol with the unit tasked with snaring the region's most dangerous drivers
We have only just pulled out of the car park at Eccles Police station when PC Paul Ashworth begins getting information through his radio about a Ford Focus with part of its 'front end hanging off.'
Using that information, officers from PC Ashworth's specialist unit at GMP begin tracking it and making their way towards the area they believe it is likely to be heading. The 38-year-old driver was detained and arrested on suspicion of driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs, and dangerous driving. "If we can predict a target coming in, our unit can get there first and it mitigates any pursuit," PC Ashworth says.
At least half of the roughly 90 fatal collisions in Greater Manchester last year involved drink or drugs - I'm told, and the aim is to try and arrest these people before they kill or cause serious injury. He said the other key issue the unit was tackling is 'cloned' vehicles - whose true identity has been hidden through the stealing or duplicating of another car's registration plates. PC Ashworth says it's a 'massive issue' in Greater Manchester, where there at least 150 cloned cars which officers know about.
Each force has a list of 'vehicles of interest' they are constantly on the lookout for and PC Ashworth is famous for memorising them, his colleague in the front seat, Inspector Jon Middleton, who is GMP's ANPR Manager, tells me. Back at the station, a blood sample will be taken and sent for analysis to determine the precise level he had in his system. According to PC Ashworth, he also only held a provisional licence, meaning he wasn't insured.The van is searched and checked over by officers and the registration doesn't match the chassis number, meaning it is indeed a clone. The vehicle the registration actually relates to is another Astra - in Bolton.
Another arrest made by PC Ashworth which is instead a classic case of 'copper's nose.' We are driving near Heaton Park in Prestwich when his attention is drawn to a VW Passat which he begins following.
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