Former Police Officer Harry Miller has hit out at the "institutionally woke" Metropolitan Police, following a surge in publicly-led action against shoplifters in the UK.
This follows a viral video posted on social media, showing two men being dragged out of a black BMW and pinned to the floor by members of the public, after they allegedly stole items from a Tesco store in Essex.
Speaking to Mark Dolan on GB News, Miller criticised the police force using their resources for "conferences and marches" instead of crimes such as shoplifting.
Mark asked Miller for his thoughts on the footage of the Essex shoplifters, and the rise in Brits stealing from shops across the country.
Former Police Officer Harry Miller criticised the 'woke' Met Police force
GB News
Miller said: "We have a real problem in this country at the moment. We have police not turning up unless it's something incredibly important like organised crime gangs, like county lines or like misgendering for instance. But when you come to things like shoplifting you cannot rely on the police.
"Now the public knows this, but more to the point, the criminal also knows this. There is no expectation of being caught. Shoplifting is a billion-dollar industry in this country, around about £950million. That's more than the Brink's-Mat robbery. Way, way more, way, way more. It's not given the serious attention that should be given. So it's no wonder really that the public are doing the job that the police are paid to do."
Mark then asked Miller: "Where are the police going wrong? Is it resources? Is it the culture? Is it policy?
Miller replied: "All of that. I mean, the police are under resourced, they're over paperworked. They're expected to do a mental health analysis, expected to babysit people who've injured themselves whilst they've been committing a crime.
"Entire shifts are lost where police officers are babysitting criminals at hospitals, because all you need to do is say, oh, I've hurt my head, I've banged my head. And then the police are obliged to look after the welfare of that person, take them to hospital and before you know it, an entire shift has disappeared."
Miller continued: "So we have a systemic problem. We also have a political problem because there doesn't appear to be the political will to police and prosecute these so-called minor crimes. Well, they're not minor crimes.
"If you're a shopkeeper and you are having your stock taken away from you on a daily basis, it's not a minor crime. It's a major crime. It's a threat to your livelihood. So the police need to reprioritise on this.
"Suella Braverman is absolutely, 100 per cent correct. The police need to turn up thefts. They need to turn up to burglaries. They need to turn up to all of the so-called small crimes. They need to stop policing pronouns.
"They need to stop ringing up members of the public because they rejected a Trans Pride shopping bag, which is what happened just the other day in Nottingham.
Harry Miller claimed the 'public are doing the job that the police are paid to do'
GB News
"They need to stop going on Pride marches. They need to stop attending Black Lives Matter critical race theory conferences and they need to get out onto the street and doing the job that the police officer is paid to do."
Mark then asked Miller about the Metropolitan Police being "woke": "Do you think that British policing is now institutionally woke?"
Miller claimed: "This is absolutely institutionally woke, 100%. And they tell us this. They fly the flags, they go on the conferences, they do absolutely everything within their power to turn our police force, our average British Bobby, into a woke member of the stars.
"That's what's happening. There are so many conferences. There are so many marchers, and police WhatsApp groups are being policed by one of the colleagues. If you tell an off-coloured joke, for instance, there's a positive obligation for you to be reported.
"You can't, you can't exercise black humour. I don't know whether I'm supposed to use to phrase black humour, by the way. That's where we're at, unfortunately. So yes, we have politically ideological police and we need to get rid of that, start again and have the police policing crime."