"God's copper" dies

[shed driver]

James Anderton, ex chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has died aged 89.

A controversial man, outspoken in his thoughts about Aids, rapists and the death penalty. The John Stalker affair was another major controversy.

SD.

[KAgantua]

rip

[J4CKO]

I got in a lift at Chester House (GMP HQ) with him once when I worked there in the early nineties, he had left by then so not sure why he was there, was a strange moment !

He was outspoken (quite unpleasantly in some cases) but to be honest I wouldn't know who the CC of GMP is now.

He was quite a big name at the time,

Happy Mondays did a song about him,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2tsJPSJyH0

Lloyd Cole name checked him,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshp6OpX3qA


Think James did as well

[gotoPzero]

Met him a few times as a kid (both mum and step dad were GMP).
Always seemed quite a nice guy tbh but I was about 10 at the time!

I remember when I was a real youngster he had a dark green Jaguar, think it was an XJ6?
This was when traffic cars were Capris and that was considered "out there" ... it was about on a par with the current CC driving a Maybach!

[W124Bob]

I used see him locally after his retirement, always struck as being smaller in real life than the TV images of the time.

[Derek Smith]

I was on a betting/gaming/lotteries course (much better than it sounds and one of the few that have stayed with me) at GMP a year or so after he got the job. The concern from the GMP officers I met was that he based a lot of decisions on his religious beliefs. He was not well-liked, at least initially. Most CCs have little effect on day-to-day policing, but there was a belief that he might impose some religion-based changes that would be unhelpful.

I was quite impressed by GMP organisation back then. Nice and tight, with a certain degree of discipline - of a reasonable level, but enforced - that was missing from some of the forces I'd experienced. Manchester was losing some of its frontier town aura although I was there when a new secure payphone kiosk was installed in the town centre. That night, a lorry turned up, a chain was put around the kiosk, and the whole thing was stolen in order, it was believed, to dissect the thing and discover a workaround.

The chap was personable we were told by those who met him, but distant was used more than once. It was a tough area, and difficult to police effectively. The officers seemed to love it. Something going on all the time, and lots of work to get their teeth into. There was a certain buzz to the place and he evidently did little in his time to lessen that.

A CC who doesn't make things worse is much better than the average incumbent.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

He introduced neighbourhood policing and TAU to GMP AND served the people for four decades.

RIP Sir.