TWO detectives are making an early morning call at a house where they suspect a burglar is still sleeping.
It is just before 9 a.m. and hours of police intelligence gathering seem to be paying dividends as they hear Mark shuffling about inside and then open the door. He is suspected of taking part in a burglary in the city centre the day before and he appears remarkably quiet, perhaps not fully awake.
One of the detectives asks Mark what he was wearing yesterday as another checks through piles of clothes under the sink and on top of a table in the room.
"Have you got a black T shirt? What about Kappa tracksuit bottoms," they ask. "Are you on anything?"
Methadone," says Mark.
Mark is living in this room with his 19 year old girlfriend, Clare who says the police have stopped him many times in the town and "that annoys me a bit". They're always asking him questions. But they were nice about it when they came to the door.
"The only thing I don't like is when they start rooting through my stuff as if I've done something and they already know about it."
Meanwhile a further search of the room has found two packets of Class C prescription drugs and needles in plastic wrappers.
The difference in the Middlesbrough police force today, the detectives explain later, is that "zero tolerance" is clearing criminals off the streets at a higher rate than ever, even if it means informants are "thinner on the ground".
The "zero tolerance" initiative was introduced in Middlesbrough last November by Det Chief Insp Ray Mallon. He describes himself as driven. One of his officers says his style is that of a police evangelist
Mallon has adapted the scheme from one set up by the Commissioner of the New York Police Department, William Bratton, during 1994-1996. "Zero tolerance targets high volume crime, in this case the habitual burglar.
He tells his officers that ignoring a crime, however small, "could be the difference between a good and bad day's crime figures". In practice, however, "zero tolerance" is more than just crime figures. It is challenging the attitude of every police officer towards the criminal.
NONETHELESS, the figures are worth looking at. The overall crime rate in Middlesbrough has been reduced by 23 per cent in the past year while the number of house burglaries has fallen by 44 per cent.
Middlesbrough is a town which architecturally, reminds one of Liverpool or Belfast. It has had the same difficulties in attracting long term jobs, and heroin is getting out of hand, said one officer. In middle class areas it is perhaps easier for the public to accept zero tolerance", but many working class people can see its advantages also.
Confronting known criminals in the street, dealing with anti social behaviour in the city centre and "lots of conversations with the public" are just as important. The ethos at Middlesbrough is to reclaim the respect of the public which many long serving officers felt had been lost by the softly softly approach. Mallon once said it was no good bemoaning a lost golden age of policing. It was the police force's approach to crime, not just unemployment and poverty, which had led to a crime culture in Britain.
"If attention is not given to petty crime, it is likely that more serious offences would follow. `Zero tolerance' is a way of winning back their authority," he said.
The Middlesbrough version differs from the New York experiment in that the British police have far greater powers to stop and question someone on the street.
A Labour councillor in the area believes the jury "is still out" on "zero tolerance". (It has been implemented in only one other town, Hartlepool, where a 38 per cent increase in the number of crimes was halved in 30 months under Mallon's guidance.)
Another councillor, Michael Carr, who is also the co-chairman of the Middlesbrough Police Liaison Committee, says he would urge research to prove "beyond doubt" that zero tolerance is working. His only reservation, he says, is the targeting of known criminals, "but they are usually the ones making the complaints against the police".
Since the beginning of the year 3,500 people have been stopped and questioned by the police in Middlesbrough, compared with 600 for 1992. The police have received 18 complaints so far this year, which is three more than last year and two more than in 1995.
If "zero tolerance" is put under the microscope, it is generally accepted that the numbers of repeat offenders should be looked at. Critics of the scheme argue it is simply too easy to say "zero tolerance" is working if naughty schoolboys are moved on from street corners. They are asking where they will be tomorrow evening. And won't convicted burglars just return to crime once they have been released?
THE Operational Detective Inspector at Middlesbrough divisional headquarters, Russ Daglish describes himself as Mallon's right hand man. Mallon, he admits, is much better at talking to the media, but he seems to be getting used to it.
"We target the right people and we confront them on the streets aggressively. Maybe that's not the right word, we confront them forcefully, but we tell the lads to use integrity and explain to people why they are being stopped and ask them if they will agree to a search.
"Many police forces in this country have concentrated on crime detection rather than crime reduction, and some officers make illegal deals with the people on the street. Here we don't wheel and deal with criminals, we arrest them.
"The people here were so sick of burglaries and anti social behaviour and there was a feeling that the public had lost respect for the police.
"A few years ago if a police officer saw a group of lads hanging around the street comer or going around the streets swearing he wouldn't have been encouraged to go and have a word with them, now we don't let that happen."
"Zero tolerance" is all about "focused" policing, says Daglish.
The stop and question method is vital as it tells the police who is walking the streets, where they are going to and where they have come from. His officers stop known criminals nearly every time they see them, they speak to youths hanging about on street corners and they do not tolerate cheek from anyone.
Almost as soon as their shift starts, Russ Spence, who has been on the police force for six years, and Edwina Cadman, a probationary officer, receive a call from the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT). A man has been reported acting suspiciously in a residential area nearby.
The MDT is a vital part of the new technology adopted by Middlesbrough police, sending details of reported crimes and those in action to a computer screen on the dashboards of squad cars. Importantly, it cannot be "scanned" by professional criminals.
On this occasion they have been unlucky. The man they are looking for has disappeared, but not before Edwina leaves the squad car to check on an elderly man who has left his hall door open.
Later in the evening, "zero tolerance" is in action again. Three youths are standing at a street corner near the town centre.
As the squad car approaches them one of the boys begins to giggle and another spits on the pavement. Clearly trying to ignore the spitting, Russ and Edwina spend a few minutes asking them what they are doing.
"What are you hanging around here for?" Russ asks. "We're waiting for my mate's girlfriend." The officers take their names and addresses and check with the control room that they are not wanted for any crimes. Once they are "cleared", the boys are sent away and, the officers hope, will have learnt a lesson.