A regional daily has investigated a series of “extraordinary” incidents of police not investigating serious crimes on its patch.

The Manchester Evening News launched a special investigation into the issue after running a number of stories about officers from Greater Manchester Police not coming out to meet victims of reported crimes.

Case studies run by the MEN included a mother whose daughter was badly beaten up but was told police would not investigate because it was not “cost effective”, and a mother who discovered that her 13-year-old daughter had been blackmailed into sending lewd photos on social network Snapchat.

After receiving more calls from “mystified” readers about the response they had received after reporting a crime, MEN chief report Neal Keeling and South Manchester reporter Beth Abbit looked into the matter further.

The piece appeared in Monday’s edition

Of how the investigation began, Neal told HTFP: “It was extraordinary, the stories caused quite a bit of consternation.

“We were seeing a pattern emerging here so we decided ‘let’s get into this and find out why this is happening’ because we were not only getting more and more calls like this, but the spectrum of crime was broadening. It wasn’t just burglaries or criminal damage, but serious stuff.”

Between them, Neal and Beth interviewed victims, senior GMP officers, Greater Manchester deputy mayor Bev Hughes and the Home Office.

The result was a long-read feature piece, published initially online and then in Monday’s newspaper.

As of Monday afternoon, the article had attracted 6,000 views online and prompted more than 250 reader comments.

Neal added: “To Greater Manchester Police’s credit, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling came and saw me and gave very frank answers to questions.

“Since we’ve gone digital we’re finding readers like in-depth articles like this. They’re actually more interested in stuff we do in this kind of depth.

“It was quite interesting and we stressed to all parties that we didn’t want a one line response, we wanted detailed responses so even the Home Office gave us one.”

In his interview, DCC Pilling told the paper that while policing for emergencies had been ‘ring-fenced’, the public would have to change their expectations of how policing was done nowadays.

“We have to try and prioritise and that means on occasion that someone who rings up and reports a crime won’t get a police officer. And it also means that if someone rings and reports a crime, and we don’t believe we will be able to solve it, and we are saying that.

“That is a difficult message for people to understand because traditionally in this country we expect a police officer to come and see us if we have been the victim of a crime. It is really difficult for the public to accept.

“What the evidence shows is that sending an officer to every crime does not produce more of a chance of catching the culprit. What it does do is reassure the public. So though we are doing an investigation on the telephone, the public view that as us not doing an investigation. We need to get better at explaining that to them.”