Cleveland police chief proud of force but being 'let down' by funding

Victoria Fuller says Cleveland Police is doing its best with limited resources, but the force needs much more than emergency support after a fatal crash near Middlesbrough.

A Volkswagen Passat carrying five young men drove the wrong way along a motorway before colliding with a marked police car. Officers had pursued the vehicle for almost seven minutes because of earlier alleged criminal activity. The pursuit ended 10 seconds before the crash, after the car entered a dual carriageway, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

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No matter how tragic and devastated you feel, we swing into action and we do what we need to do.

Fuller recalled receiving the news while asleep. “No matter how tragic and devastated you feel, we swing into action and we do what we need to do,” she told the BBC. The Home Secretary later announced £2 million in additional funding, along with the deployment of 200 officers from other forces. Fuller said she was grateful for that support, but added: “I need that all the time.”

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I need that all the time.

The force covers Middlesbrough and Teesside and faces the highest recorded crime rate in England and Wales, according to figures for the year ending in March. It also recorded the highest rates of burglary, sexual offences, violence with injury, and criminal damage and arson. Cleveland has experienced the largest decline in officer numbers since 2010 and remains staffed as if it were a rural force, Fuller said.

The force’s Labour police and crime commissioner has said it needs an additional £20 million a year to recruit officers and tackle organized crime. Fuller wants Cleveland to become part of one of the “big, strategic forces that have the resource, the flex and the capability to surge when they need to surge”.

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It absolutely needs to change.

Recent inspections have described Cleveland as one of the most improved forces in England and Wales, with performance levels among the country’s best. Police have arrested 87 people in operations against organized crime gangs, and 16 people have been jailed for related crimes over the past two years. Fuller rejected the idea that gangs control parts of Middlesbrough, describing the area as complex and linking organized crime to school absence, drug addiction, mental health problems, deprivation and unemployment.

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We're doing the very, very best with what we've got - and we absolutely do need more.