[7] Anderton was a controversial figure during his 15 years in office due to his outspoken style of leadership and hardline views on crime, policing and morality.

In the 1990s, Manchester had gained the deriding tag of 'Gunchester', in reference to the city's high gun crime rate at the time.

[14] On 14 October 2010, Greater Manchester Police posted details of all calls made to them in a 24-hour period on Twitter.

[15][16] The service posted details of every incident reported to its officers in 24 hours to demonstrate how much of their time is spent on what the chief constable called "social work" instead of fighting crime.

The area GMP polices is split into geographical divisions, with each Metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester being assigned one.

As of March 2021[update], these are the six command areas:[32] Manchester Airport (I) Division falls within the Specialist Operations branch.

Due to the constraints on budgets and the latest review, the Road Policing Unit will lose a further 78 officers and in 2012 restructured/reduced to two RPU's based at Eccles and Chadderton.

[needs update] In response to a rise in vehicle-related crime across Greater Manchester in the early 1980s, GMP formed the Traffic Area Support Services (TASS) unit,[33][34] which among other vehicles, operated using a fleet of marked Ford Capris,[35][36] as well as unmarked Lotus Sunbeam cars, which were externally downgraded to appear as a regular Talbot Sunbeam.

[39] This unit notably featured in the 1995 fly on the wall six-part BBC documentary X-Cars, albeit referred to as 'X Department', which attracted 12 million viewers on the series' first airing and resulted in the TVCU receiving an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the public.

[42] In c. 2001, the GMP was operating a McDonnell Douglas MD 902 Explorer helicopter call sign India 99 which remained in service until 2008.

[43] Prior to the establishment of NPAS in 2012, the Air Support Unit had amalgamated with Cheshire Constabulary, North Wales Police and Lancashire Constabulary to form the North West Air Operations Group (NWAOG) in July 2011, operating four helicopters.

In January 2002, GMP ordered a Britten-Norman Defender 4000 fixed wing aircraft for the Commonwealth Games in July.

[46] In July, GMP began operating the Defender call sign India 66 for the Games which flew on average seven hours a day.

GMP also trialled a tethered blimp in 2010 to provide surveillance for major events and high crime locations.

The mounted officers are employed to target crime hotspots and are also seen at many events including demonstrations and the region's football matches.

The mounted unit is based at Hough End, in Chorlton, and uses horseboxes to transport the horses for duties around Greater Manchester.

This unit conducts overt surveillance of certain released prisoners and upload some footage onto YouTube of people that they believe have reoffended.

Its role involves proactively tackling crime and disorder across Greater Manchester's public transport system, including roads, buses, trams and interchanges.

The unit consists of 56 police officers, replacing previous initiatives that saw PCSOs patrolling the transport network.

These are the numbers of police officers for each rank: In June 2017, less than a month after the Manchester Arena bombing, the Chief Constable of GMP, Ian Hopkins, said the force was under strain due to funding cuts.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, intended to write to the Prime Minister claiming that the GMP was up to its limits "and probably beyond them".

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) maintained that the number of police officers would reduce by 1,800 over the next ten years.

Burnham feared that pressure on the GMP was increasing due to terrorism and also because of a rise in violent crime in the region.