Recommendations - Cleveland Police, May 2022

In 2015, Cleveland Police made a referral as a result of a criminal investigation carried out by the force, Op Javelin. During the investigation into historical child sexual abuse and exploitation, three of the victims in the case expressed a level of dissatisfaction about the way they were treated by officers in the 1990s. All three victims reported that Cleveland Police failed to protect them from known abusers and as a result they were systematically sexually abused and exploited for a substantial period of time by multiple abusers. In 2019, Cleveland Police made a voluntary referral to the IOPC due to a further complaint against Cleveland Police. The complainant alleged that the force failed in their statutory duty to protect children between 1994 and 2013 from being sexually exploited. Our Directorate of Major Investigations identified areas for organisational learning.