Cleveland PCC backs campaign to protect officer mental and physical health
It's as a Cleveland police officer - who's been racially abused between 30 and 40 times in his 6 and a half years with the force - is backing a new national campaign to support the mental health of frontline officers
Last updated 20th May 2026
A serving Cleveland Police officer says frequent racial abuse he has previously received “sticks with you”.
PC Omair Iqbal, who is of South Asian descent, said he had been verbally racially abused by members of the public between 30 and 40 times in a six-and-a-half year spell with the force.
PC Iqbal is supporting a Police Federation campaign called ‘Protect the Protectors’, which is seeking to safeguard the physical and mental wellbeing of police officers.
It has also received backing from Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey.
One of its aims is to have racist abuse levelled against police officers counted as a separate recorded criminal offence, rather than categorised more broadly as a hate crime.
In the UK a hate crime is any crime, such as an assault, harassment or criminal damage that is perceived by the victim or anyone else to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived characteristics.
PC Iqbal now works as a neighbourhood officer, but was previously on the operational frontline in Teesside and also has experience of working in custody.
He said: “When detained parties are frustrated or feel things aren’t going their way, they often direct that anger at me and unfortunately, on some occasions, that anger becomes racial abuse, which makes it far more personal than anything generic.
“It sticks with you, definitely. “
PC Iqbal said he was “quite a resilient person” and he hadn’t always reported such incidents as he didn’t want to burden colleagues with extra work.
But he was reassured that wasn’t the case and it was unacceptable to face abuse and allow perpetrators to get away with it.
He said: “Overall, Cleveland Police is a really supportive organisation.
“I think because it’s a very small force, there is a good sense of community, so we all get on with each other and all look out for each other.
“It’s all about working together for the right reasons, officers being listened to and things acted upon.”
In 2024 PC Iqbal became chairman of a local Race Equality Network, which partners with the force with a view to ensuring the concerns of ethnic minority officers are listened to.
He said: “Things are progressing positively, and the chief constable (Victoria Fuller) supports the work of the Race Equality Network as well and recognises the unique challenges its members face.”
The network also aims to build links with community groups with protected characteristics, for instance refugees or asylum seekers and those representing as LGBTQ+
PC Iqbal said: “That external engagement is important because it shows the community that there are people in the force from different minorities.
“It breaks down the barriers for those who might initially feel uncomfortable, making it easier for them to approach us and challenging any misconceptions held about the police.”
Mr Storey said he believed racism was becoming more prevalent in society generally and some people felt “more emboldened to speak and act in ways that are deeply offensive”.
He continued: “Tackling racism is something that’s really important to me as police and crime commissioner.
“I’m very supportive of the North East Anti-Racism Coalition, which is doing a lot of work around community cohesion and tackling racism in the North East, and I also chair the local Strategic Hate Crime Partnership.
“It isn’t always easy to come forward when you’ve been a victim of hate crime, so if there are barriers or things that need fixing to make that easier and make people feel more comfortable, then that’s part of my job and the chief constable’s to make sure that we get those things done.
“I have regular meetings with the welfare support teams here at Cleveland Police, and I’ve got a good relationship with the federation, so I’m more than happy to support officers in any way that I can, to help them if they are suffering from racial abuse.”
Mr Storey added: “We need to make sure that we’re discouraging and deterring people from thinking it’s acceptable to behave in that way in society, and that we don’t normalise some of these behaviours.
“The best way to do that is to make sure that we come down as hard as we can on people who think it’s acceptable to target someone because of their race.”
The Government said it was determined to tackle all forms of hate crime.
It said the law already provided for aggravated versions of certain criminal offences, where the offender demonstrates hostility based on race or religion.
Courts, meanwhile, could treat evidence of hostility based on race and other protected characteristics as an aggravating factor, and increase any sentence accordingly.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Verbal and physical abuse, harassment, or intimidation of our brave police officers and staff are completely unacceptable.
“We strongly encourage any police officer who faces this unacceptable abuse to report it.
“Those responsible will face the full force of the law.”