Mayor Ray Mallon will tomorrow unveil what he has described as a revolutionary strategy to fight crime.

The tough-talking former police chief, once dubbed Robocop, who won a landscape victory to become independent Mayor of Middlesbrough in May, has spent his first months in office devising the plan to beat crime.

In it, he makes a series of law and order pledges and sets a crime reduction figure. It is the same tactic he used successfully when, as head of Middlesbrough CID, he pledged a zero tolerance policy to cut crime in the town by more than 20 per cent.

Last night, Mr Mallon would not comment on the contents of his plan, but an aide said: "This will be the closest Britain has seen to a New York-style mayor effectively running the town."

Mr Mallon achieved national recognition after pledging to "take back the streets" while policing Middlesbrough in the mid-1990s.

His tough stance on crime, adapted from a strategy used in New York, was praised by then Home Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Zero tolerance policing sought to deter serious crime by clamping down on minor crimes, so offenders did not get into a spiral of crime by getting away with petty offences.

Mr Mallon's approach paid off in Middlesbrough, with crime figures falling by 26 per cent at one point.

Before that, he spent more than two and a half years in Hartlepool, where crime fell by 35 per cent, from 1,500 reported offences every month to 900.

After the former detective superintendent was suspended from Cleveland Police in 1997, as part of the anti-corruption Operation Lancet inquiry, crime rates rose in the town.

He has since been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but resigned from the force earlier this year after admitting disciplinary offences.

Last month, at a public meeting attended by his former boss, Cleveland Police Chief Constable Barry Shaw, he said officers needed to be more pro-active and visible.