Greater Manchester Police superintendent is suspended from duty

The announcement was made at midnight this morning (Tuesday 9th September). It is extremely brief and simply quoted the Deputy Chief Constable, Terry Woods, as saying "a Superintendent has been suspended from duty pending further investigation by our [Professional] Standards Directorate".

It is rare for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to make such an extremely short statement, and even rarer for it to be scheduled for release at midnight rather than being human-submitted in working hours. It's unclear whether this is some form of damage control, i.e. releasing the information at an unsociable hour of the night and hoping the early-morning news cycle helps to suppress its spread. Embarrassingly, while the statement is only 15 words long, the Deputy Chief Constable managed to misspell the word "professional".

A couple of years ago in 2023 a near-identical announcement was made: a superintendent had been suspended from duty, and Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods made a brief statement without any substantial details. It's unclear whether or not this is the same superintendent, due to the lack of information made available.

A superintendent is a senior policing role, typically earning between £80,000 and £100,000. They are usually responsible for oversight of a geographical area, or a specialist capability such as counter-terrorism or digital forensics. As of 2023, there were 63 superintendents employed by GMP.

The investigation is being undertaken by GMP's Professional Standards Directorate, which is essentially the 'police watchdog'. While it's part of the force itself, it's tasked with investigating corruption and other wrongdoing by fellow officers. If sufficient evidence of wrongdoing is found, a misconduct panel will be invoked to potentially discipline or dismiss the officer in question. In some cases an investigation may also be referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).