One of Sutton's most senior policemen will hit the beat for the last time this week.

Sutton's deputy borough commander Superintendent Chas Bailey, will retire from the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday after 30 years service.

He has been responsible for major improvements in policing in Sutton over the past seven years - coinciding with crime dropping by close to a third.

His work has included developing the policing strategy for Sutton Town Centre, and developing closer working between the Metropolitan Police Service, and other public sector organisations like Sutton Council.

He worked with pubs and clubs, and the council licensing teams to reduce crime linked to the borough's night time economy, and set up the hugely successful Best Bar None Awards in 2010 and 2011.

Chairing the borough's Domestic Violence Forum, he has also raised awareness of the domestic violence problem in Sutton ,which accounts for about a third of all violent crime, including making it easier for victims to come forward.

Supt Bailey was fundamental in developing the police's Sutton town centre strategy that has been key to year on year drops in crime.

Its zero tolerance policy in nailing down town centre crime has described as a model for new Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe's London-wide 'Total war on Crime'.

Supt Bailey has also been at the centre of developing a partnership with Sutton Council - engineering a deal which saw the town hall pay for an 80 camera CCTV system monitored by the police - which has been crucial to catching town centre criminals, as recently as in the August riots.

The most high-profile suspects the system snared were killers Ross Collender, Jordan Dixon and Daniel Ransom, who were tracked and arrested after their fatal Halloween attack on Ben Gardner.

He said getting justice in December last year for Matthew Jeeves, who was permanently scarred after being hacked within an inch of his life with a meat cleaver on his way to a party on New Year's Day 2008, was also among his most satisfying moments in the police.

Barry Hughes, pleaded guilty to the attack on December 19 this year, after a four year police investigation.

Supt Bailey said: "It was the most violent attack that I have investigated. I was absolutely determined to catch who was responsible, and finally we did get one of them."

Supt Bailey, who has lived in Sutton for the past 28 years, started his career as a PC in Battersea, before moving to Kingston, then Sutton and Epsom, in Lambeth, at Scotland Yard and finally back to Sutton for the past seven years.

He said he enjoyed his time as a PC because he "could make a direct difference" every day.

He said the police had changed considerably in his 30 years. He said: "We have gone from just policing communities, to working with those communities to police them together."

He said major breakthroughs in technology had also revolutionised how the service worked.

He said: "When I started radios were not like they are now, and now we have ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) systems and advanced forensics."

He will now take some time out, before working in consultancy on running town centres.

He will remain chair of the Town Centre Partnership executive committee, which joins up work between police and other public sector organisations in the borough.

But he said he would still be on the lookout for those breaking the law. He said: "I will always be a cop at heart."

He will spend his last day driving the police carrier which supports policing activities of response officers when they make arrests.