How Disc is Enhancing Crime Prevention in Manchester City Centre
Manchester City Centre is a vibrant hub for retail, hospitality, and tourism. However, high footfall traffic brings increased challenges related to retail crime, antisocial behaviour, and public safety. To address these issues, CityCo Manchester Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) was set up and is core funded through a combined radio and BCRP Membership subscription and delivered by CityCo. The partnership has integrated Disc into its crime prevention strategy since 2013, making it a core tool for information sharing and collaboration between businesses and law enforcement.
The Role of Disc
CityCo Manchester operates two Disc platforms to cater to different sectors: one for retail and commercial businesses and another for the night-time economy (NTE). In 2023, the NTE system was upgraded to a segregated content platform, allowing the partnership to support additional business sectors, ensuring compliance while enabling businesses to access relevant intelligence.
Sectors using Disc in Manchester City Centre:
-Retail & commercial businesses
-Licensed premises (pubs, bars, nightclubs)
-Hotels (Accommodation BID – 76 hotels) (service provision to the ABID funded by the Manchester Accommodation BID)
-Car parks and patrol staff
-Estate management teams
These platforms enable businesses to:
✔️ Securely report incidents and share intelligence with other members
✔️ Receive real-time alerts on criminal activity, wanted individuals, and high-risk incidents
✔️ Stay informed about new exclusions, Community Behaviour Orders (CBOs), injunctions, and other legal measures
✔️ Access push notifications through the Disc app for instant updates
How Disc Supports Greater Manchester Police (GMP)
The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Neighbourhood Strategic Team has fully integrated Disc into their policing model. It provides officers with instant access to intelligence, helps them track live incidents, and improves overall crime management in Manchester City Centre.
Neighbourhood Strategic Sergeant, Manchester City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team, highlights how Disc has transformed their approach:
“DISC is a really useful tool that has enhanced Policing and community relations in Manchester City Centre. Not only is it a system that enables officers to access a depth of information via intelligence, nominal profiles or ID sorts, but it is also a great means of communication. The system allows officers to receive and send messages/alerts so that incidents can be tracked in ‘live time.’ Officers regularly use the system to seek information to assist in an investigation or locate a vulnerable or missing person. DISC has become an integral part of the way we Police Manchester City Centre and link to our community, whether that be retail, hospitality or public services. Our model is the envy of many other policing areas.”
Why Disc is Valuable to GMP’s City Centre Policing Team
🔹 Focused intelligence sharing – Police databases contain vast amounts of offender data, but Disc creates a targeted system where businesses report incidents relevant to their community, making it easier for police to identify repeat offenders and crime trends.
🔹 Identifying high-harm offenders – Through Disc, GMP can monitor retail crime patterns and pinpoint individuals causing the most harm to businesses.
🔹 Secure information dissemination – Officers can share intelligence on individuals with bail conditions, criminal behaviour orders (CBOs), injunctions, or specific Modus Operandi (MOs) (e.g., using de-taggers, carrying weapons) securely with relevant partners.
🔹 Fully compliant and legal – Disc provides a secure and GDPR-compliant platform for intelligence sharing, ensuring sensitive data is only accessed by authorised personnel.
A spokesperson from GMP’s Business & Consular Liaison | Neighbourhood Strategic Team reinforced this point:
“DISC is useful for Police largely due to the opportunities it presents in terms of intelligence sharing. Police systems contain large databases of offenders, but due to their size and scope, at times it can be difficult to narrow down exactly who is offending where and which offenders are really causing the most harm to the local community. DISC allows for a segregated system for a specific community where they can report incidents, allowing officers to more easily see what is affecting them and what matters to them in a timely manner.
For example, the Business Crime Reduction Partnership in Manchester City Centre uses DISC to share intelligence on retail crime, which gives Greater Manchester Police a platform whereby they can see who is targeting the retail sector on a repeated basis and causing the most harm to that community. It can also help identify trends of crime and showcase new offenders that otherwise may have gone under the radar.
The platform also allows for an easy way to disseminate intelligence outwards to partners, with officers able to release information on individuals that have certain conditions (i.e., bail conditions, criminal behaviour orders or injunctions) or MOs (i.e., uses a de-tagger, carries a knife, etc.). This is invaluable, as it allows the Police to share relevant information in a secure fashion to only those that need it, resulting in a fully compliant, legal model in which to share intelligence that helps not only apprehend offenders but, more importantly, protect would-be victims of crime from harm.”
A Standout Success: Preventing Child Abduction in Manchester City Centre
Disc has been instrumental in securing arrests and preventing crimes across various sectors, but one of its most significant safeguarding successes took place on 16th July 2024.
An urgent alert was sent through Disc regarding concerns for three missing juveniles from North Wales. Intelligence suggested they had been coerced into travelling to Manchester to commit criminal offences. The alert was sent to the Accommodation BID members, urging them to report any sightings or bookings of the juveniles or their suspected handler.
Outcome:
A city-centre hotel spotted one of the juveniles checking in and immediately alerted the police. GMP swiftly responded, leading to the arrests of two male adults for child abduction and the safe recovery of all three missing children.
This case demonstrates how Disc’s real-time intelligence sharing and strong community-police collaboration can prevent serious crime and safeguard vulnerable individuals.
Results & Impact
✔️ Improved Police & Business Collaboration – Real-time access to intelligence enables faster police responses.
✔️ Crime Prevention & Business Safety – Businesses receive timely, relevant updates, helping them take action before incidents occur.
✔️ Effective Risk Management – Segregated content ensures information is targeted, compliant, and secure.
✔️ Better Crime Tracking & Reporting – Disc provides data-driven insights to identify trends and support long-term crime reduction strategies.
Conclusion: Why Manchester’s Crime Prevention Model Stands Out
Manchester’s approach to crime reduction and business safety has become a model for other policing areas. Disc provides the secure, efficient, and compliant platform that businesses and police need to work together effectively.
Rob Dyson, Business Crime Reduction Manager at CityCo Manchester BCRP, sums it up:
“The DISC Platform provides the partnership and partners with a secure space to effectively focus our efforts on the matters most important to our members, ensuring intelligence and updates are shared in a compliant secure system in a timely fashion. The ease of reporting via the app and browser ensures community intelligence is captured and utilised for effective long-term management of risk offenders.”
Want to learn how Disc can support crime prevention in your area? Get in touch today.