Nearly 500 Cleveland Police officers were on mental health sick leave
We've obtained the figures as part of our investigation
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are hearing about the impact long term sick leave is having on Cleveland Police - as our investigation reveals the number of officers signed off because of their mental health.
From the start of 2023 through to mid-November last year, nearly 500 frontline officers were not on duty for reasons including depression, anxiety and stress.
Paul Crowley, Chair of Cleveland Police Federation, said: "It doesn't surprise me. I know exactly how stressful police work is just on its own, dealing with other people's stresses and other people's misfortunates. It takes its toll, so it's not a surprising figure.
"Ultimately while we've got officers off on long-term sick or any sickness infact, it's going to ultimately have an impact on the community and the ability to be able to serve our communities, but also as well it has a kind of side impact on colleagues.
"All the time while we have officers that are off on sick leave then obviously that workload still needs to carry on. With any public sector organisation, that workload is still going to keep generating and it's still going to keep going so the impact is going to be widespread and it's going to be felt not just from our communities but also within the organisation.
"There has been times where I've personally had to take on the workload of colleagues to ensure that wheel keeps turning because all the times while we're serving the public, someone needs to pick up that workload so yeah absolutely, I've dealt with it before and I've had incidents where I've had my workload exponentially increased as a result of that sickness.
"People are always going to need the police. They're always going to need assistance and that phone is never going to stop ringing. We'll always be there to respond. The stresses that are involved in that are incredible. There's literally not enough hours in the day quite frankly to do all the work that needs to be done and obviously at some point it comes to a breaking point.
"I see officers day in and day out that are working as hard as they can to try and make sure that they meet the demands of the community and they want to do their best and they try to do their best, and unfortunately as there's literally not enough hours in the day to manage that expectation effectively, that unfortunately sometimes does end up in complaints and I've seen it before where those complaints end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back, resulting in officers having to take sick leave as a result of mental health issues."