Middlesbrough town acts as a sub-regional shopping and nightlife centre for the Tees Valley and, with a premiership football club, the national ‘spotlight’ is on Middlesbrough district as the area strives to be ‘a clean and safe environment where people and business thrive’. The district is policed by 323 police officers, 47 PCSOs and 30 police staff all providing services to the areas of Middlesbrough town centre, North Ormesby, Coulby Newham, Newport and Berwick Hills.
The district management team consists of a Superintendent (District Commander), Detective Chief Inspector (Crime Manager), Chief Inspector (Operations Manager), Chief Inspector (Neighbourhoods) and a District Administration and Finance Manager.
Superintendent Karen Ravenscroft
District Commander
Karen joined West Yorkshire Police in 1982 having graduated from Leeds University with a LLB Honours in Law. She spent 16 years as a PC before applying for what was then the Accelerated Promotion Scheme in 1998. Her application was successful and she was promoted to uniform sergeant in May 1999. Further promotions followed within West Yorkshire and then in October 2007 she was promoted to Detective Superintendent, Director of Intelligence, upon transfer to Cleveland.
Immediately prior to joining Cleveland Police, she spent 18 months on secondment to the Police and Crime Standards Directorate at the Home Office. A significant part of her role during this time was working on the national Tackling Violent Crime Programme where she had specific responsibility for tackling alcohol fuelled violence associated with the night time economy and anti- social behaviour associated with access to alcohol by young people. In addition to working with specific Police Forces, providing advice and sharing good practice, she also ran a number of national alcohol campaigns including the campaign designed to tackle the problem of sales of alcohol to young people.
Karen is delighted to have been appointed District Commander for Middlesbrough and looks forward to being able to work with partners and the local community in tackling those issues that often have the biggest impact on people’s quality of life and fear of crime.
