I locked up some of Britain's most dangerous crooks - here's why gangs are ... trends now
Detective Sergeant Dave Speight spent three decades hunting down and locking up some of Britain's most violent criminals.
He led a specialist unit at Leicestershire police focused on dismantling gangs wreaking havoc on the country and taking guns off the streets.
DS Speight, 63, helped put away criminals who were responsible for some of the most horrific crimes imaginable.
From a 17-year-old rapist who tried to bludgeon his victim to death with a concrete slab to a bungling hit squad who tried to gun down the wrong target, the former cop caught hundreds of criminals.
Their sentences added together, DS Speight is responsible for criminals receiving around half a millennium in jail time.
However, the top detective has revealed all is not well in British policing.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, DS Speight said vital police resources and manpower are being diverted to deal with woke ideals.
Detective Sergeant Dave Speight (pictured) spent three decades hunting down and locking up some of Britain's most violent criminals
DS Speight, 63, helped put away criminals who were responsible for some of the most horrific crimes imaginable. Pictured: DS Speight at his passing out in 1992 with his baby daughter Lauren
The heroic cop went to his daughter Lauren's (right) passing out parade around 30 years later
Leicestershire Police have a dedicated LGBT+ social media account where they post images of officers posing and abseiling with pride and trans flags, as well as going to schools to speak about hate crimes
Cops are having to sit behind their desks, dealing with safeguarding paperwork, while others are forced to do other agencies' jobs by protecting mentally ill people.
Others are even getting forced to police Pride marches instead of catching criminals, leaving Britain's streets exposed and making them a haven for gangs.
Leicestershire Police have a dedicated LGBT+ social media account where they post images of officers posing and abseiling with pride and trans flags, as well as going to schools to speak about hate crimes.
DS Speight said: 'Most of the criminals don't realise the police levels are low. They don't realise that all the coppers will be on the Pride march.'
The former detective said there is a lessening focus on real police work, while woke issues, including accusing Twitter users of hate crimes, takes more and more manpower.
He said: 'That's just getting bigger and bigger. Most police officers would say you shouldn't do that. It's one of those things — there's a lot of focus but is there the same focus on crime?
'A lot of the time the resources we need we just don't have.
He put away some of the UK's most violent criminals, including these two armed robbers
He also secured the capture and eight-year sentence of an ex-soldier who robbed a corner shop with an axe
'The police has changed from when I joined because now nearly 51 per cent of our work is nothing to do with investigating crime.
'It's servicing the public and mental heath and that sort of thing.' Leicestershire Police were contacted for comment.
It's not always been this way. For the first 25 years in the police, Dave enjoyed the job. Now, he says, it's not the same.
'We've taken murderers off the street, firearms off the street - generally the juicy stuff, which is why I joined.
'It was a bit Sweeney-ous at times. You won't get anything like that nowadays.
'It's good as in the way that we now serve the public more and we're a lot more diverse in what we do but the problem is - it's the usual thing - there are so few officers and it doubles or trebles the workload.
'That's why you never see police officers on the streets.
'It's the old saying, they're all sat around doing paperwork, though they've got laptops nowadays.
DS Speight said: 'The police has changed from when I joined because now nearly 51 per cent of our work is nothing to do with investigating crime.' Pictured: Speight (second row, far right) at the end of his police training in 1992
The 63-year-old (pictured at the start of his career) said: 'We've taken murderers off the street, firearms off the street - generally the juicy stuff, which is why I joined'
He won Investigator of the Year in 2015 (pictured), and was nominated for the National Investigator of the Year award too
Although his career has ended, his daughter Lauren (right) has continued in the police force
'[It's] because safeguarding is one of the biggest things in the country now, safeguarding old age pensioners, mental health people, all that type of thing.'
Born in Somerset, DS Speight moved around as a youngster due to his father's job in the RAF, living in Germany, Malta and Cyprus before he ended up in Leicestershire after his mother met his stepfather.
Speight became a maintenance electrician at the Leicester Royal Infirmary but after watching The Bill he decided to join the police.
He said: 'I thought to myself, do I want to do this for the rest of my life, or do I want to do something more exciting?
'I used to watch it three times a week and I'd sit there thinking 'That's the life – that's what I want to do!
'When I first joined, in 1992, I was based at Braunstone. There's one job I remember that was very early on. We got a call saying there was a wedding going on and there were about 20 people fighting.
'We went along and they stopped fighting one another and tried to fight us. That was a proper welcome to the job.'
While still in his probation period, he was afforded a taste of life as a detective and it made an immediate impression.
He revealed exclusive crime-scene photos with MailOnline of some of the weapons he and his team removed from the streets
On one job his guns and gangs squad uncovered a set of guns with silencers (pictured)
As part of another case they found a mock gun that was used to intimidate suspecting civilians
He said: 'Straight away I knew that's where I wanted to be, investigating and bringing people committing crimes to justice.'
He was then posted to Keyham Lane, joining the serious crime team where he worked for two years until 2010. After that, he became part of Operation Spartan - the force's 'guns and gangs' team.
As he was 'the one out there getting the results' he remained as a criminal detective for most of his career.
When his two previous departments merged – leading to the creation of what is now the Complex Investigation Team – DS Speight continued to be driven by a desire to catch bad guys.
Over the years, DS Speight has had trips overseas executing European Arrest Warrants in Madrid and Amsterdam, bringing back two of Leicestershire's most dangerous criminals, both wanted for separate attempted murders.
He won Investigator of the Year in 2015, and was nominated for the National Investigator of the Year award too.
DS Speight and his team also received further recognition after investigating an armed
