Roads Policing Unit road policing unit pictured in 2026 GMP also operates a
Roads Policing Unit (RPU) responsible for all traffic policing in the county, which includes over of motorway.
Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit Under the Roads Policing banner, the Greater Manchester Police also maintains a Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit (TVIU). Initially formed as a response to a rise in vehicle-related crime across Greater Manchester (as in the rest of Britain) in the early 1980s, the TVIU (then called the Traffic Area Support Services or TASS) operated using a fleet of marked
Ford Capris, as well as unmarked
Lotus Sunbeam cars, which were externally downgraded to appear as a regular Talbot Sunbeam. 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. The TVCU was also featured in the 2006
BBC One series
Car Wars, to similar public acclaim. It was renamed in the mid-2010s to the Tactical Vehicle Intercept Unit (TVIU), a name it keeps to this day.
Air Support Unit Aviation support has been provided to the GMP by the
National Police Air Service (NPAS) since 2012. NPAS operates a
EurocopterEC135 T2+ helicopter call sign NPAS 21 from
Manchester Barton Aerodrome, which provides support to all neighbouring police forces. GMP had formed an
Air Support Unit in 1989. GMP's first helicopter was a
Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel. 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. The group was established to save money and provide flexibility with the closest helicopter able to be deployed to an incident and if there were two incidents in the same force area then two helicopters could be sent if necessary. The Air Support Unit had also operated a fixed wing aircraft. In January 2002, GMP ordered a
Britten-Norman Defender 4000 fixed wing aircraft for the
Commonwealth Games in July. In July, GMP began operating the Defender call sign India 66 for the Games which flew on average seven hours a day. The Defender flew around 1,200 hours each year including targeting terrorists and major criminals. The Defender was decommissioned in December 2013.
Tactical Aid Unit GMP operates a Tactical Aid Unit which is deployed for
crowd control and
riot policing. The service has policed notable riots such as the
2001 Oldham race riots, the
2008 UEFA Cup final riots and the
2011 England riots which affected Salford and Manchester city centre in 2011.
Serious Crime Division The SCD is a unit of GMP responsible for dealing with serious crimes and providing protection for vulnerable people.
Counter-terrorism The GMP Counter Terrorism Unit was formed in April 2007 to prevent the spread of terrorism. The city has experienced incidents with the intention to spread terror, such as the 1996 Manchester Bombing and the
Manchester Arena bombing. Most recently, the unit helped thwart the 2009 plot to launch terror attacks on the Trafford Centre, Arndale Centre and nearby St Ann's Square.
Tactical Firearms Unit Officers of the GMP, as in the rest of Great Britain, do not routinely carry firearms. Instead, the GMP maintains a
firearms unit to provide them with a capability to deal with armed criminals. The Greater Manchester Police, Tactical Firearms Unit maintains
Armed Response Vehicles, which transport armed officers to the scene.
Mounted Unit The GMP maintains a
mounted policing capability. The mounted officers are employed to target crime hotspots and are also seen at many events including demonstrations and the region's
football matches. Horses are also used to search inaccessible areas for missing or wanted people. The unit is made up of a team of specialist police officers, skilled
grooms and
trainers, and 35 horses. The mounted unit is based at Hough End, in
Chorlton, and uses horseboxes to transport the horses for duties around Greater Manchester. All of the horses are named after characters from
Charles Dickens's books.
Special constabulary GMP has over 183
special constables, who are assigned to each of the twelve divisions. Special constables work alongside their regular counterparts and are mainly assigned to divisions and work within local policing teams (LPTs), however some divisions still allow officers to work within response teams when LPT's are not on duty. Between 2009 and 2012, a small number of special constables were integrated into the Special Operations Department (X – Depart) working within the Road Policing Units (RPU's), undertaking a full and complete duties within the traffic department. In addition there are a number of special constables engaged, with support of their employers in the Employee Supported Policing scheme. This is where the officers employer supports the officers duties, usually with paid time, 8 hours per month are commonly covered to undertake their special constabulary duties at their normal place of work. Special constables are normally coordinated by the chief officer of the special constabulary, currently Adam Kramer, and divisional commanders. Under the guidance of the chief constable, it was envisaged that the number of special constables within GMP would increase to 1,000 officers, within a three-year period from 2009, to date this target has not been achieved.
Video Intelligence Unit This unit conducts
overt surveillance of certain released prisoners and upload some footage onto YouTube of people that they believe have reoffended.
Major Incident Team Greater Manchester Police has eight specialist Major Incident syndicates.
Transport Unit The Transport Unit was created in November 2019. 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. ==Collaborations==