SPECIAL REPORT: An IT system meant to modernise GMP instead helped plunge the force into crisis. Now seven years later its long-promised replacement has still not arrived. John Scheerhout reports.
06:30, 18 Jan 2026Updated 13:41, 18 Jan 2026
Chief Constable Stephen Watson has vowed to replace PoliceWorks(Image: Manchester Evening News)
When it went live amid some fanfare in July 2019, GMP’s new £27m computer system iOPS was supposed to – belatedly – drag the force kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Instead, it brought the force to its knees.
The failing organisation was placed in special measures the following year and the then chief constable Ian Hopkins was ordered to resign by Mayor Andy Burnham after government inspectors found the new system had failed to record an estimated 80,000 crimes in a 12-month period.
Hopkins’ successor Stephen Watson was installed to turn around the force and by 2022 he announced the ‘inadequate’ system would be scrapped. Cops greeted his internal email announcing the decision with cheers. But – four years on – the old system remains in place and its replacement won’t be ready until the spring of next year at the earliest, following a tendering process dogged by problems, the Manchester Evening News can reveal.
The first procurement exercise in 2022 and 2023 was abandoned despite a cost of £726,000 because Sir Stephen – credited with a remarkable turnaround in GMP’s performance – and his fellow leaders in GMP weren’t impressed with the offers on the table.
How the Manchester Evening News exposed the problems with iOPS over the years
A second tender process was launched which encompassed a ‘broader market’.
Now GMP has chosen a New York-based IT company, Mark43, which boasts a string of more than 300 public service clients including agencies across the USA, among them Boston Police and the US Secret Service. The company has opened an office in Manchester and currently provides IT for one rural police force in the UK, Cumbria.
Its task is to replace a key part of iOPS (Integrated Operational Policing System), dubbed iFLOPS by cops at the height of GMP’s woes. This part of the system is a records management system called PoliceWorks. This is the IT that cops use on a daily basis and makes the force function properly.
Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson(Image: Joel Goodman)
When PoliceWorks was creaking, police whistleblowers reported a string of problems to the M.E.N. including that they couldn’t access the information they needed to assess the potential risk of visiting suspects and addresses.
They also reported missing persons files were going missing and intelligence on suspects couldn’t be viewed. It deleted markers for sex offenders, hampering the requirement to monitor them on release from prison.
At the time cops described the system as ‘frightening’ and said ‘we cannot do our jobs’. They said they were ‘fearful for colleagues and the public’. A series of repair ‘patches’ were hastily applied to the system. The force says all the big problems have been resolved and there now ‘no major defects’.
The issues also meant GMP was unable to provide full crime figures to the Home Office, although this was later corrected. The Office for National Statistics has confirmed that GMP ‘is now providing full data’. However, the out-going system is still incompatible with www.police.uk where residents can find out the crime statistics in their area. The force says the new system will fix this problem too.
In an interview with the M.E.N. last year Sir Stephen compared PoliceWorks to an old car – it could still work but it required more oil.
It was initially envisaged the replacement system would be in place by the end of 2025. This was moved back to 2026. It has now been moved to Spring 2027.
Sir Stephen told us last year: “It is inadequate, it is going, we are procuring a replacement for it. We are in the process of a new procurement exercise.” He added: “We get one chance at doing this and getting it right.”
One of his concerns was that GMP had effectively tried to build its own bespoke system with iOPS. The new system is ‘off the shelf’ although GMP says it is ‘customisable’.
Greater Manchester’s deputy mayor Kate Green told the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s police, fire, and crime panel in September that the ‘preferred bidder’ was Mark43 although contracts had yet to be signed.
Kate Green, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire(Image: )
“We have had a very long wait for the replacement,” she said. “It’s been a process that has taken longer than anticipated. I make no apology for going through the process to get the product that’s best for Greater Manchester. We cannot afford to get this wrong again, there’s a huge credibility issue.”
By October a four-year contract worth £19m was signed, bringing the total cost of introducing both systems to just short of £46m taking into account the original iOPS contract. This figure does not take into account the cost of the three tendering processes that have been undertaken or the cost of consultancy fees paid ahead of the implementation of iOPS.
Public sector IT projects are notoriously expensive and fraught. Senior officers at GMP – especially those who were around when iOPS was turned on – can be forgiven for feeling nervous when its replacement is finally switched on as planned next spring.
Great swathes of data from PoliceWorks – GMP’s collective memory since its inception in 1974 – will have to be secured and then transferred over to its replacement.
Asked what the new tech would give the force that the old one failed to provide, a GMP spokesman said: “The Mark43 (records management system) provides an innovative, reliable and more intuitive system, that is more time-efficient for our officers and staff. The information it gathers is largely similar to the current system but allows opportunity for greater information capture to support policing in Greater Manchester.
“It provides a modern, innovative and future-proofed platform that we can maintain within GMP. Working together with Mark43 from the very outset means we can produce the product that works most effectively for users across the force and our partners.”
Matt Polega, managing director of Mark43 UK, said: “Our partnership with Greater Manchester Police is now well underway, with Mark43 working closely alongside senior management, officers and staff to deliver a modern, resilient records management system that supports day-to-day policing and operational effectiveness. This is a complex, large-scale programme, and close collaboration is key to ensuring the system meets the needs of one of the UK’s largest police forces.
“We opened our UK headquarters in Manchester last year, locating our team alongside GMP and other partners in the region. Manchester is a natural base for Mark43, with a strong public service tradition and a growing technology ecosystem. Reliable, cloud-native technology is increasingly critical to modern policing, and we are investing locally to support forces with systems they can depend on.”