Columnists
News | Sport | Leisure

Gadfly
Mike Amos casts a sharp eye over local matters

Chris Lloyd
Chris Lloyd finds some fascinating trivia in the week's events

Sharon Griffiths
The region's best known woman columnist who never sits on the fence

Ray Mallon
A personal view of the week's events from the first directly-elected mayor of Middlesbrough

Helen Cannam
Weekly column by Helen Cannam

News
Regional | National

Sport
Regional | National

Business

Features

Columnists
News | Sport | Leisure

Commercial
Shoppers World
Bargain Search
Classified Ads Online
Marketplace

Entertainment

Leisure

Online guides

Ray Mallon

Ray Mallon was once "Robocop" - the man who introduced the zero tolerance method of policing to the streets of Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.

As well as being popular with the public, the method cut crime by about 20 per cent - and so it became popular with politicians.

During the 1997 campaign, Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Michael Howard all beat a path to Mallon's door so that they could look tough on crime. But later that year, Mallon was suspended as part of the anti-corruption inquiry, Operation Lancet.

More than 60 Cleveland officers were investigated, but there was insufficient evidence to press criminal charges.

Mallon, though, was one of 13 who were to face disciplinary charges. But Mallon had other ambitions.

As the disciplinary procedure dragged on for months, and having spent more than four years suspended, Mallon dramatically resigned from the police in February 2002 so he could stand in May to become Middlesbrough's first directly-elected mayor.

He won 63 per cent of the vote to Labour's 23 per cent, and now installed in Middlesbrough's mock-Gothic town hall, he has resumed his weekly column for The Northern Echo.

• Back