Biting cuts to the police budget and diminished forces mean members of the public should take matters into their own hands, according to the controversial Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner.

Kevin Hurley swept to power in the home county at the 2010 PCC elections on a zero-tolerance pledge. Since then crime in Surrey has fallen and at a time when approximately 17,000 police officers lost their jobs, Hurley added to Surreys force.

Speaking ahead of the PCC elections on 5 May, the ex-soldier, with 30 years of policing behind him, told IBTimes UK that members of the public should spring to the help of victims and claimed he would happily be made redundant by nemesis Theresa May if it meant the abolition of some of the 43 police forces across the country.