One complaint lodged by Steve Turner - about a Labour party election leaflet - led to an inquiry that lasted almost a week and involved fraud officers visiting the homes of three activists.
A well-connected Tory police and crime commissioner triggered two different police investigations into political opponents in recent weeks, Sky News can reveal.
One complaint was about a Labour election leaflet in Tory blue colours - which he thought might break electoral rules - which he referred to Redcar council who forwarded it automatically to the police. The other complaint was about alleged harassment, which he alerted police to via the 101 hotline.Mr Turner's complaint about the Labour election leaflet led to an inquiry which lasted almost a week.
After the third and final home visit to Labour activists over the leaflet complaint, Cleveland Police telephoned Mr Turner to update him about their probe into his complaint - a level of engagement which Labour officials say is rare when they raise similar issues elsewhere. Mr Turner said he was updated personally about both cases by the police but said he did not know the police had made home visits to his Labour opponents until he was contacted by Sky News.
The code of conduct for police and crime commissioners says they must"not use the resources of the elected local policing body improperly for political purposes ".. He has been defended by Boris Johnson in broadcast interviews, worked in the office of ex-cabinet minister Simon Clarke and sits on the board of the Middlesbrough Development Corporation.
"My contact with Cleveland Police's SPOC came when he contacted me to confirm there was an imprint but it was only 1mm high and that it was promoted by the Labour Party. As 1mm high is a 3pt font it is considered illegible on a printed product and therefore was clearly not meant to be identified which is misleading to the public.
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