Fresh from their disclosure of pandrop shortages in Scottish care homes for the elderly, following the wrong lorry full of underage calves to France and their recent, courageous if mostly armchair, investigation into tiktok videos of trouble in Glasgow, the BBC Scotland team are reported to have taken fright at the notion of actually going down to the really mean streets on Cleveland (Middlesbrough).

Dismayed, BBC Tees, below, are pushing the story off their website with vague headlines.

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How mean are the streets in Cleveland compared to Glasgow?

From the Northern Echo, two days ago:

Cleveland Police deals with the highest overall crime rate in England and Wales, with Middlesbrough at the centre of a week of deadly violence and disorder. There were 123.4 recorded crimes per 1,000 people in the Cleveland area in the year to March 2026, according to the latest Home Office figures. The rate puts Cleveland well ahead of West Yorkshire, which recorded 107.9 crimes per 1,000 people.

Cleveland has 251 police officers per 100 000 people, just above (6-7%) the average of 235 per 100 000 in England and Wales Greater Manchester recorded 103.7, while the Metropolitan Police recorded 101.0. Across England and Wales, the overall crime rate was 84.7 per 1,000 people.

Cleveland recorded 21.7 homicides per million people in the year to March, compared with 8.1 across England and Wales.

Despite recording the highest overall crime rate, Cleveland is one of the smaller forces by officer numbers. It had 1,503 full-time equivalent officers as of March 31, 2026.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/26503495.cleveland-police-highest-crime-rate-england-wales/

On the last point, however, the staffing ratio in Cleveland is 251 per 100 000 people compared to the average for England & Wales, of 235 per 100 000, is slightly better.

In Glasgow, it’s 373 officers per 100 00 people – 50% better.

In Glasgow and Scotland, the overall crime rates were 84.9 and 56.9 per 1 000 people compared to 123.4 per 1 000 in Cleveland.

Glasgow’s homicide rate in 2026, was 18 per million compared with 21.7 per million in Cleveland.

Sources:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2025-26/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-30-june-2026/

So, overall crime 50% higher and homicide around 20% but with 50% more police officers.

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