Cleveland Police

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This article is about the English police force. For the Ohio police force, please see Cleveland Ohio Police.

Coverage
Cleveland Police
Cleveland Police area
Area	Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees
Size	230 sq miles (595 km²)
Population	554,000
Operations
Formed	1974 (merger)
HQ	Middlesbrough
Officers	1691
BCUs	4
Stations
Chief Constable	Sean Price

Website	Force web site

Cleveland Police is the Home Office police force responsible for policing the area of former county of Cleveland in North East England. The Cleveland Police area covers approximately 230 square miles (595 km²) and has a population of over 554,000.

As of 8 February 2005, the force employed 1,691 police officers, 874 police staff and 79 police community support officers (PCSOs) and there were 88 special constables.

Cleveland Police area is divided into four policing basic command units (BCUs), known locally as districts, which are coterminous with the four unitary authorities of Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees. The force is responsible for policing a predominantly urban, densely populated area, closely resembling metropolitan authorities in socio-economic characteristics and policing needs.

The Cleveland Criminal Justice Area is a major production centre for the chemical industry, which results in the large-scale transport by road, rail and sea of hazardous substances. The chemical industry remains a key economic factor and presents the force, other emergency services and partners with a significant major incident risk.

The Police Authority is made up of seventeen members, nine from the four councils, three lay justices and five independent members.

The force was established as Cleveland Constabulary on April 1, 1974, covering the newly-created county of Cleveland (which was abolished on April 1, 1996, being replaced with the four unitary authorities). It has only recently been renamed Cleveland Police.

It is a successor to the Teesside Constabulary, and also the York and North East Yorkshire Police, which existed before 1974, and also took over part of Durham Constabulary. The police area is the second smallest geographically, after the area covered by the City of London Police.

Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on February 6, 2006, it would merge with Northumbria Police and Durham Constabulary to form a single strategic police force for the North East England. Cleveland Police favours merging with the southern area of Durham Constabulary.[1]

On the January 31, the new and state-of-the-art HQ in Middlesbrough was opened, boasting a 50-cell custody unit including a purpose-built prevention of terrorism suite, one of only three in the country. It has been designed to increase the speed and safety of detainee handling with secure vehicle docking, video links to court and CCTV links in all cells for improved prisoner safety.

The Middlesbrough headquarters is the centrepiece of Cleveland Police Authority’s multi-million pound Private Finance Initiative project which has also seen a new headquarters for Redcar and Cleveland district and new town offices in Redcar and South Bank. The building, which was officially opened by the Home Secretary John Reid, is seen as not only the spearhead to policing Cleveland in the 21st Century but also the gateway to the regeneration of the St Hilda’s area of the town and the flagship Middlehaven project. [2]

As of July 2006, the plans to merge Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria together were scrapped.