Matt Storey, Cleveland’s PCC warns of rising knife crime

The end of PCCs: 

There are no re-election prospects for Mr Storey, as PCCs across the country are going to be scrapped at the end of their current term, in May 2028. Mr Storey described the decision – made in November 2025 – as “wrong”, but said he and his team are sticking to their plan and “nothing” has changed. 

Mr Storey said the PCC’s office funds “a lot of really important services”, highlighting My Sister’s Place, Harbour, amongst others, adding he hopes such services are retained amidst all the upcoming changes, rather than some national “one size fits all commissioned service for victims”, as he does not think would benefit the people of Cleveland.

When the government announced the scrapping of PCCs, they argued that their abolition would save the taxpayer at least £100m.

Mr Storey thought that the current system provides value for money and did not believe the £100m figure, as he thought that the changes to governing policing are going to be “much more expensive” with “upheaval” and “extra levels of bureaucracy”, with policing boards involving local council leaders, concluding: “I don’t think it is about saving money.”

If not about cutting costly bureaucracy, why does Mr Storey think that PCCs are set for the chop? He thinks there is a “misconception” that PCCs don’t perform an important function, which he believes is wrong, adding: “I think we are as important, in terms of local democracy, as mayors or councillors.”

On the potential new way of working in Cleveland from May 2028, Mr Storey said: “As it currently stands, I think we would probably end up with a board of the four council leaders and they would appoint a policing representative.” He believed that this would result in a “disconnect” with the public, as such a person is “not elected, they’re selected”.

Knife crime up: 

Knife crime increased in Cleveland in 2025 compared to 2024, with 155 offences per 100,000 people, up from 148 the previous year. While Cleveland Police were previously the third worst for knife crime, this change – accompanied by decreases in the West Midlands and in Greater London – sees Cleveland as the worst affected area for knife crime in the whole country.

Mr Storey said that his office is doing “a lot” of work on knife crime, describing a rise to second in a 24/25 league table being “concerning”. He highlighted a knife crime action fund, with support offered to Stockton Arts Centre, who are doing a lot of work with primary and secondary schools around raising awareness of knife crime through creative arts. 

Mr Storey also discussed work at Billingham Boxing Club being undertaken with “at risk” young people who might be drawn into knife crime, amongst other initiatives, also highlighting the 50 bleed cabinets across Cleveland.  

It has also now been confirmed that the Cleveland Unit for the Reduction of Violence (CURV) will continue to with its preventative approach to drive down serious and violent crime with a guarantee of £1,342,845 in the latest round of Home Office funding.

The end of Cleveland Police?:

He spoke of the “danger” associated with police mergers. A potential North East force would likely consist of Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria, and Mr Storey was concerned about “resources and influence gravitating towards Newcastle, Sunderland and those big cities in the north of the region”, and was particularly worried about whether residents in rural East Cleveland would get the same localised policing expected from Cleveland Police.

Under current arrangements, he sees “three very cash-strapped forces” which could become “one really big cash-strapped force” – with the issue for him being funding not the structure.

He said if they are to happen, mergers of forces should link to the devolution agenda, so combined authorities are created across the whole country, people elect a mayor and the mayor can appoint a deputy mayor to perform the PCC function, as already happens in areas such as West Yorkshire.

Mr Storey argued “more powers” should be devoted to deputy mayors in this arrangement, as his job would be “easier” if he was able to commission public health and local criminal justice responsibilities, on top of police and crime services. He said deputy mayors would then be a “public safety commissioner role”.

As it currently stands, the Cleveland Police area, nor a potential North East force, are not geographically aligned with Tees Valley Combined Authority, which is led by Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen.

If there was a consistent system across the country of deputy mayor PCCs serving alongside regional mayors, Mr Storey suggested having the mayoral candidate run on a joint ticket with a potential deputy mayor, comparing such a system to the presidential system used in America, so that both mayor and deputy mayor have a “democratic mandate”.

‘Perverse’ funding from government:

Despite having “dedicated my life to the Labour Party”, Mr Storey said: “In this role, I’ve been very frustrated with the government”, adding he has a greater responsibility to the people of Cleveland than he does to Labour.

He says it’s “absolutely perverse” that an area like Cleveland gets a lower funding settlement than anywhere else in the country, with other areas seeing “significant increases in their budgets”, in spite of having less need and less crime. 

He highlighted how areas such as Surrey don’t face the deprivation and poverty that is also faced in Cleveland.

He said: “A Labour government, particularly, should be redistributing wealth from wealthy areas to areas like ours where deprivation is more significant, and in policing terms, that isn’t happening.”

Overall crime down, some areas up: 

Information from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that crime is reducing in Cleveland, down one per cent across total recorded crime – excluding fraud – for the year ending 2025 compared to 2024.

Mr Storey pointed to reductions in violent crime, stalking and burglary, adding: “We have significantly fewer number of victims in Cleveland, year on year.”

In spite of such reductions, some types of crime in Cleveland are up, and up significantly, One of the current government’s missions is halving violence against women and girls in a decade, yet sexual offences in Cleveland are up 13 per cent.

Mr Storey described the figure as “worrying”, but tackling domestic abuse and violence in Cleveland is “massively important” to the PCC, with lots of work ongoing, adding that the government needs to “step up” in providing greater resources.

He added: “We’ve got a perpetrators strategy now, which is going to work with men who we feel are likely to be drawn into those behaviours, or likely to become domestic abusers – how do we prevent that from happening – and also make sure that when that does happen, there’s appropriate enforcement and sanctions placed on those men.”

Robbery is up 47 per cent in Cleveland, which Mr Storey partly attributed to changes in how the police “acknowledge those types of crimes”, but said it is still a “concerning figure” and thought “positive work” going on around neighbourhood policing would help tackle the problem.