'Robocop' reborn as mayor launches £2m drive to tackle crime

The former detective whose attempts to enforce "zero- tolerance" policing in Middlesbrough were thwarted by his superiors finally got his way yesterday by using his powers as the town's recently elected mayor to introduce the crime-fighting strategy.

Ray Mallon announced the deployment of 80 uniformed community wardens, by far the biggest squad in Britain, to crack down on all aspects of anti-social behaviour, from prostitution to begging.

Publicly, Mr Mallon's former employers at Cleveland police welcomed the new scheme. But privately the high-profile launch of his strategy was a source of supreme irritation to both the force and the local police authority. A police source said: "He's doing no more than fulfilling the statutory duty of a local authority to deal with crime."

Mr Mallon, who stood for election on a crime-fighting ticket in May, insisted his strategy would cut crime by 15 per cent – a clear echo of his vow in 1996 when he was appointed head of Middlesbrough CID to cut crime in the town by 20 per cent in 18 months or quit. His zero-tolerance policies – which earned him the nickname Robocop – brought a 24 per cent reduction in half that time, but he was suspended a year later, amid accusations that he turned a blind eye to informers' crimes. He never returned to duty.

Mr Mallon indicated yesterday that he would introduce intelligence-led policing to decide where his warden squad would be deployed.

Rolling strategies to deal with potential crime trends would be mapped out at "weekly showdowns" with police chiefs and council officers at the town hall, he said. Adopting the tone of a messianic, US-style mayor, the former detective superintendent declared he would "replace fear with hope" by boosting his number of street wardens from 14 to 90, at a cost of £2m.

He said: "As a tide of litter, graffiti, yobs and muggers blight Britain's streets and public buildings, we in Middlesbrough say, 'We have had enough'. For the first time in this country, the town hall is truly taking charge of affairs."

Members of the existing team of £13,500-a-year wardens (mainly ex-military men) deployed on Teesside's rundown estates suggest that Mr Mallon's zero-tolerance gospel is already getting through.

Wardens such as 30-year-old Darnelle Ottis, a New Yorker who landed up in Middlesbrough through marriage, are working 11-hour shifts to clean up neighbourhoods. This week, their priorities were the illegal sale of industrial fireworks and drug dealing. They claim to be providing most of the intelligence for a police campaign to arrest a drug dealer a day.

"Ray adopted zero tolerance from New York and it's right," said Mr Ottis, after tackling two teenage truants. "There can be no beating around the bush. You've got to meet it head on. If you tackle [these kids] they feel lost, they just walk away."

As Mr Ottis spoke, a group of teenagers bought drugs from a dealer in an alleyway behind him. Then, as television crews approached him for an interview, a teenage girl shouted from the driver's seat of a Ford Fiesta: "Don't film this. It's nicked." Proof, if it were needed, of the task in hand.