BOSSES at troubled Cleveland Police are waiting to hear if the force will be among six to be named and shamed as poor, in a report later this month.

A fresh assessement of every force by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) is expected to conclude that half a dozen are failing to cut crime and win public confidence.

The study is crucial because it will be the first since powers were handed to Home Secretary David Blunkett to sack the chief constables of failing forces.

Cleveland was the subject of a scathing report by HMIC last November, which highlighted rising crime and a failure to answer 999 calls properly.

Since then, the force has been rocked by the revelation of a £7.3m "black hole" in its budget, which has forced it to abandon plans for 200 extra officers.

A total of eight forces have recently received highly-critical reports - a list believed to have been whittled down to six in the new report, which will be updated annually.

Under the new Home Office powers, chief constables can be dismissed if their forces are continually graded as poor, effectively putting the six forces on a 12-month probation.

Sean Price, Cleveland's Chief Constable, told The Northern Echo he was braced for further criticism from the HMIC because its study went back three years - long before his appointment.

But he said: "The feedback I get now from HMIC, and from the Government's standards unit, is that they are very happy with the progress made since I took over a year ago.

"I expect us to suffer from some criticism in the assessment and there are still considerable areas for us to improve, but I also expect there to be some acknowledgement of the progress made."