'Think of my officers families' - Greater Manchester Police plea to house party organisers

A number of "large scale" house parties have been broken up by police - with some organisers even booking a DJ.

Greater Manchester Police say it issued 180 fines to people breaking lockdown rules across the weekend of 23 and 24 January alone, with half given to organisers of house parties or people in attendance.

The force says officers are being put at risk by the those holding, and going to, the parties and has now released bodycam footage of the events.

Chief Inspector Natasha Evans urged people to "put yourself in the shoes of my officers, think about their health and their families".

In the footage Chief Inspector Natasha Evans says on one 10 hour shift her and her colleagues were called three large scale house parties.

The first was a birthday party, where around 20 people were found in a two bedroomed flat with a DJ who had been hired.

The others were at Airbnb properties where 50 people were found at each address, again with hired DJs in attendance.

She said: "All three were a blatant disregard of the rules and therefore all individuals as these addresses were issues with fixed penalties."

In an emotional statement Chief Inspector Natasha Evans pleas with the public to consider her officers.

She said: "At the start of the pandemic I know one officer who didn't see his baby boy for 12 weeks due to having to live away from home to avoid bringing coronavirus back to the house.

"But when you join the police you sign up to help others and this sometimes means putting the public before our own families, which we do repeatedly.

"However last weekend officers lives were directly put at risk just by attending these events.

"The impact on my officers is profound, they are in small environments with large numbers of people who are not wearing face masks and then they're going home to families, to young children, to vulnerable relatives who live with them.

"This is then made worse if the officers contract the virus as many in their teams then have to isolate reducing the number of officers that are there to protect the public.

"The impact of these parties is increasing the spread, more and more people are being put in close proximity to one another.

"If you're thinking of planning a house party I would ask you to put yourself in the shoes of my officers, think about their health and their families and the impact on them if they got Covid from attending your party.

"I ask you to think about the families of my officers who want to be able to protect people and not police these events.

"We all need to do our bit to keep everyone safe in Greater Manchester, please do yours."