Racist abuse against Cleveland Police officers on the rise

Matt Storey is supporting the Federation’s Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police initiative, as the number of hate crimes against Cleveland Police officers rises.

There were 78 recorded instances of hate crimes against Cleveland Police officers in 2024-25, an increase from 49 the previous year.

One of the campaign’s goals is for forces to gather specific data on racially motivated abuse of officers.

Mr Storey said he found the scale of the figures “really worrying,” noting a general increase in racism and racial abuse in society.

He said: “Unfortunately, people feel more emboldened to speak and act in ways that are deeply offensive.

“It shows how anyone, no matter who you are, even if you are a police officer, can still be a victim of racism in your daily life and work.”

Mr Storey, who also chairs the local Strategic Hate Crime Partnership, emphasised the importance of tackling racism.

He said: “I’m very supportive of the North East Anti-Racism Coalition, which is doing a lot of work around community cohesion and tackling racism in the North East.

“So when [Cleveland Police Federation Chair] Lauren suggested supporting this campaign, I thought it really does fit with what we’re trying to do here in Cleveland to make it a welcoming place for everyone, from every background.”

The Federation has reported instances of officers not reporting racist incidents due to not wanting to create more work for their colleagues and believing nothing would come of it.

Mr Storey acknowledged the difficulty in coming forward as a victim of hate crime, pledging to address any barriers to reporting.

He said: “It’s understandable that some people are reticent to come forward, but I would always say to them: if we don’t report these things, then we don’t know the full scale of the issues.

“But it isn’t always easy to come forward when you’ve been a victim of hate crime, so if there are barriers or things that need fixing to make that easier and make people feel more comfortable, then that’s part of my job and the Chief’s job to make sure that we get those things done.”

The campaign aims to have racist abuse against police officers recorded as a separate recordable offence, rather than under the broader category of hate crime.

Mr Storey hopes to influence this change and push the Home Office on the issue.

He also urged the courts to take hate crime and racist abuse seriously, expressing disappointment with some of the sentences given for hate crime.

He said: “I definitely think that the punishment should be as harsh as it can possibly be – if people are being targeted because of their race, it makes that crime that much more offensive and that much more serious.

“We need to make sure that we’re discouraging and deterring people from thinking it’s acceptable to behave in that way in society, and that we don’t normalise some of these behaviours.

“The best way to do that is to make sure that we come down as hard as we can on people who think it’s acceptable to target someone because of their race.”

Mr Storey plans to discuss with the local Crown Prosecution Service about following Humberside Police’s lead, where if an officer reports a racially motivated crime against them and no action is taken, the CPS will automatically review it.

He assured Cleveland Police officers that his door was always open to discuss their experiences of racist abuse.

He said: “While I’m not responsible for the operational side, and I wouldn’t ever want to encroach on what the Chief Constable does, I’m here to support people in whatever way I can.

“I have regular meetings with the local welfare support teams here at Cleveland Police, and I’ve got a good relationship with the Federation, so I’m more than happy to talk to officers or support officers in any way that I can, to help them if they are suffering from racial abuse.”