LONDON (AP) — From stolen cars to suspicious smells, one of Britain's biggest police forces has tweeted every incident it dealt with over a 24 hour-period to prove a point.

The online Twitter campaign aimed to show the pressures that police are under as British officials prepare for deep budget cuts.

"The reality of police work is that although crime is a big part of what we do, we do much else besides," Chief Constable Peter Fahy of Manchester said in a message posted to YouTube. "We're very much the agency of last resort, and a big part of our workload is related to wider social problems of alcohol, drugs, mental health and people having problems with their relationships."

The project, which began at 5 a.m. yesterday, had already racked up more than 1,300 different incidents by yesterday afternoon. Among the first tweets: An alert about a stolen vehicle thought to be headed for Manchester, the arrest of an aggressive shoplifter, and a report that "a man appears asleep at bus stop".

Greater Manchester Police is one of the country's largest police forces, responsible for a 500-square-mile area centred on Manchester, which competes with Birmingham for the title of England's second city.

Although Manchester has seen some high-profile crimes — including international terrorism cases — most of yesterday's calls spoke of the daily grind of police work.

Many tweets covered domestic incidents, traffic accidents, stolen cars and missing people. There were calls about animals, complaints about a man urinating against a school wall, and a report of someone smoking on an incoming flight to Manchester Airport.

There were also dozens of false alarms. In one incident, officers were sent to a bridge where a man was reportedly seen dangling a baby over the edge. In fact, he'd been carrying his dog in his arms because the animal was afraid of bridges.

For technical reasons, the police updates were being published across three different Twitter feeds. The project was to run until 5 a.m. today.

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