{"id":555140,"date":"2025-11-07T13:02:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/555140\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T13:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:02:17","slug":"greater-manchester-police-chief-filmed-arresting-suspect-after-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/555140\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester Police chief filmed arresting suspect after chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Watson detained the man after the theft in Bury New Road\"ChfChf Con Stephen Watson helps with an arrest in Prestwich(Image: GMP)<\/p>\n

Marching into action, fresh from a celebration to welcome his newest recruits, this is the moment Greater Manchester’s top cop<\/a> helped make an arrest.<\/p>\n

It’s highly unusual for a chief constable to get involved with the hard graft of arresting<\/a> suspects on the ground.<\/p>\n

But that was the reality faced by one alleged shoplifter in Prestwich<\/a> yesterday afternoon (November 6).<\/p>\n

Sir Stephen Watson QPM, Greater Manchester Police’s chief constable, had been attending a passing out parade – where the force had welcomed a new cohort of officers at the Sedgley Park training centre.<\/p>\n

Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

GMP received reports of a theft from a store on Bury<\/a> New Road, where a security guard was allegedly assaulted.<\/p>\n

While officers chased the suspect on foot, Chf Con Watson ‘spotted the pursuit’ and decided to take action, the force said.<\/p>\n

\"videoHeadline\"\/Moment GMP’s top officer helps arrest suspected shoplifter<\/p>\n

He got ahead of the suspect before detaining the man, while chasing officers quickly arrived to make his arrest.<\/p>\n

Video footage, captured by an officer’s body-worn camera, shows Chf Con Watson approaching the suspect before helping with the detention.<\/p>\n

Officers went on to arrest another man and a woman close by in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n

All three suspects – aged in their 30s – remain in custody today (Friday) on suspicion of theft.<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Stephen marches into action(Image: GMP)<\/p>\n

A GMP spokesperson added: “It\u2019s the latest action as part of our increased proactive enforcement of shop theft across Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

“Almost 500 shoplifters are being brought to justice every month with more than 6,000 offences solved in the year up to September 2025, compared to fewer than a thousand in the year before the Chief\u2019s arrival in May 2021.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Watson detained the man after the theft in Bury New RoadChf Con Stephen Watson helps with an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,1285,188,393,4884,187,2465,3044,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-555140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-bury","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-greater-manchester-police","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-prestwich","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115508554392369340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}