How private force stepped in to collar 400 criminals
BRITAIN’S first ‘private police force’ is investigating hundreds of crimes that regular officers are too busy to look at.
A firm led by former Scotland Yard senior officers has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals in England and is now carrying out murder inquiries.
TM Eye, which has a 100 per cent conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any organisation south of the Border besides the RSPCA.
The company, the first de facto private police force, is operating against a backdrop of rising crime rates and police budget cuts. Its activities include:
A service called ‘My Local Bobby’ costing households up to £200 a month each for guards to patrol their streets;
Three high-profile murder investigations that police have been unable to complete, including one case dogged by allegations of corruption and cover-up;
Help in cases of rape, missing persons, burglary, theft, stalking and blackmail. Cofounder Tony Nash, an ex-Metropolitan Police commander, said: ‘This is going back to Dixon of Dock Green to a degree. It’s what people want.
‘There is no substitute for going out and knocking on doors. But with the current state of finances, police are solving cases behind their desks and that has become the culture.’
In the past two years the company, staffed by retired detectives and cybercrime experts, has brought successful private prosecutions against 403 criminals for fraud, intellectual property theft and other offences. A total of 43 were jailed.
However, critics fear the rise of private policing could lead to a two-tier system where only the wealthy get protection from criminals.