A former top Met detective who led the investigation into serial killer Levi Bellfield has been unveiled as Reform UK’s new police and crime advisor.
Colin Sutton, who also spearheaded the operation that caught the south London Night Stalker, will help Nigel Farage's party develop its pledge to halve crime in five years.
At a press conference on Monday, Mr Sutton said he wants police forces to “refocus on homes and streets and not posts and tweets”.
He added: “The police service has been captured by a liberal ideology and people are too scared of bucking against that ideology.”
Frontline officers would be given tasers, 300 closed police stations would be reopened, and criminal investigations into online arguments and spats would be stopped as part of Reform's policing plans, Mr Sutton said.
Diversity quotos would also be scrapped.
“Reform said that they want to increase the number of officers by 30,000 within the next parliament, I will be pushing for them to add to that the commitment, or at least the ambition, to open at least 300 front counter police buildings,” Mr Sutton said.
“Because as far as I am concerned, we have lost too many. We've lost nearly 700 public access police buildings across this country.
“Since 2010, the Metropolitan Police in London is going soon to go down to having only 18 points of public access in the whole of London.
“When I was working, that was well over 100 and it's no good saying that internet access and online access is a replacement for it.”
Mr Farage said he will spend £7billion on policies towards Reform’s goal of bringing down crime, including by recruiting 30,000 extra police officers.
He described Mr Sutton as a "huge asset" to his party.
As a Detective Chief Inspector for the Metropolitan Police, Mr Sutton led more than 30 murder investigations and solved some of Britain’s most notorious cases.
He led the inquiries that captured Bellfield, who murdered three women including schoolgirl Milly Dowler, and Night Stalker Delroy Grant who carried out a series of sex attacks on elderly people over 17 years in south London.
Two hit ITV dramas - “Manhunt” and “Manhunt: The Night Stalker” - were based on the investigations.
