A FORMER police officer has quit the force to set up his own crime-fighting security firm.

Lewis Kearney, 32, served with Essex Police for 12 years but resigned after disagreeing with the lack of bobbies on the beat.

He has promised to personally pound the streets - and will only accept other former cops to help protect people from becoming victims of crime.

Mr Kearney said the current service provided by the force is “lacking” and officers are leaving “left, right and centre”.

He said: “There’s less officers than ever, they rarely patrol, they cannot respond to every call, and for the calls they do respond to they are regularly failing to arrive at the scene within their promised time limits. I wanted to do something about this.”

Mr Kearney’s new firm, Blueline Security, will begin providing private security patrols in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, from tomorrow.

Essex Police came under fire recently for its latest anti-burglary initiative by asking residents to plant prickly hedges outside their homes.

The force have also partnered up with driving instructors in Tendring which will see learner cars fitted with GoPro cameras to film criminal behaviour.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Private security firms are not new and police forces across the country work with them, community groups and partner organisations to prevent and reduce crime.”

UK Crime Stats found that from September 2015 to September this year there were 11,854 burglaries in Essex and in Colchester only three per cent were solved.