Britain's "downtrodden" police are ready to "snap" under the combined weight of rising crime and woke policies, according to an ex-officer who quit the Force after years of frustration at a lack of crime-fighting.
Fenya Heraldsen-Nodder blamed the justice system's "naivety" for the increasing sense of lawlessness on Britain's streets, despite record numbers of officers in post.
Most Britons report feeling that crime is on the rise, with theft is up to a level unseen since 2014.
"It's so frustrating," Heraldsen-Nodder told Robert Jenrick in an exclusive report with GB News, investigating the scandal of Britain's prolific offenders.
Fenya Heraldsen-Nodder blamed the justice system's "naivety" for the increasing sense of lawlessness on Britain's streets
GB NEWS
"When you finally do catch a criminal, you put so much time in getting them charged. If it does get to court, you could get a judge on the day that just goes: 'But this poor man! I know he has done it 12 times before, but this time he's going to change!'."
Ordinary residents tired of relying on seemingly impotent police forces are banding together across the country in a push to defend their communities.
Cheryl Spruce set up her local Neighbourhood Watch after a gang attacked her husband for daring to report them to the police.
"When my husband was walking down into the town centre, he was jumped from behind with a knife to his throat," she recounted at the scene of the ambush.
"It was a horrendous experience. He was told to stop reporting their dealings in our area".
Cheryl Spruce set up her local Neighbourhood Watch after a gang attacked her husband for daring to report them to the police
GB NEWS
"Incensed" by such an audacious attack that led her husband to flee the local area with their young son in the immediate aftermath, Spruce was moved to gather her neighbours to work with police against the gangs.
While there have been small wins, locals remain nervous out in public despite years of work, Spruce told Robert Jenrick.
"[Crime] is making people very, very uneasy about the area where they live. I had somebody phone me the other day and say she was worried about walking up the high street. She felt very intimidated."
Standing in Woolwich town square, once the centre of perpetual firework attacks against residents innocently going about their business, the mother was clear about what was causing the breakdown in law and order.
She said: "The [criminal justice system] is broken. Once people report a crime they have no confidence that if somebody has been arrested, that that person is going to be convicted".
Heraldsen-Nodder sympathised with accounts such as those of Spruce and her husband.
In the context of a dysfunctional justice system, she said even cops are losing faith in their ability to fight crime: "It has gotten to a point where police officers are so completely downtrodden, they just stand there thinking 'is there even any point in arresting this person yet again?'
"They're probably just going to get a slap on the wrist and [be] sent back out to do it next week. I do feel it is only a matter of time before it snaps, really."
