Police to crackdown on phone theft with new powers to enter buildings and seize stolen phones located via tracking apps_Nhy
Police are to get new powers to enter properties without a warrant if tracking apps such as ‘Find My Phone’ show stolen gadgets are inside.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the move was aimed at giving officers the ability to act swiftly against phone snatchers.
The ‘warrantless powers of entry’ powers could also be used to seize other high-value items fitted with tracking devices, such as bicycles and will be included in Labour’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill, published today.
Currently, police must obtain a warrant to search for stolen goods.
Home Office sources said there would be an ‘expectation’ that police would make full use of the new powers.
However, it remained unclear whether they could be successfully deployed in blocks of flats.
Officers will require sufficient evidence that stolen goods are inside a particular dwelling, and ‘geolocation’ devices may not provide information that is precise enough.
Ms Cooper said: ‘It is extremely frustrating for victims when they can see exactly where their stolen phone has gone but nothing is done.
‘That is why we are determined to give the police the powers they need to move fast to crack down on these crimes that are blighting our communities.’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured) backed the move to grant police permission to enter properties without a warrant if stolen gadgets are inside
Other measures in the bill include resurrecting the ‘Asbo’ in a bid to crack down on anti-social behaviour.
Yobs will be handed ‘respect order’ by a civil court and breaches could lead to immediate arrest and a jail sentence.
However, they will be less wide-ranging than their predecessor – anti-social behaviour orders – which were introduced in 1998 and scrapped in 2014.
Asbos applied to anyone over the age of 10 and carried up to five years’ imprisonment, but the new version will only be imposed on adults and carry a maximum two years, according to details unveiled last November.
There will be a range of new offences to combat knife crime and ‘spiking’ will be made a specific criminal offence for the first time.
Climbing on historic war memorials will be made an offence following widespread revulsion at the treatment of, among others, the Royal Artillery Memorial at London’s Hyde Park Corner during a pro-Palestinian rally in 2023.
Wearing face coverings and possessing fireworks at protests will also be banned.
In a bid to combat the shoplifting epidemic – with 490,000 offences recorded in the year to September, up 23 per cent on the previous 12 months – assaulting a retail worker will be made a specific offence.
Tracking apps such as ‘Find My Phone’ may not provide information that is precise enough, particularly if a stolen gadget is thought to be somewhere in a block of flats
The bill will also reverse measures which set out how shop thefts under £200 could only be dealt with by magistrates, rather than a Crown court.
The under £200 limit has been condemned as a ‘licence to steal’ and Labour will reintroduce the prospect of longer sentences for lower-value thefts.
However, the bill’s measures contradict other steps being taken by Labour in the courts.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has set up a review which is currently looking at sending fewer people to jail in order to ease the prison overcrowding crisis.
And another review is considering whether more crimes should be dealt with by magistrates or a new ‘intermediate’ court, potentially leading to lower sentences, in a bid to help ease the backlog of 73,000 cases in Crown courts.
The use of lie detector tests for sex offender and terrorists will also be broadened when the bill becomes law, expected to be towards the end of the year.
But Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: ‘Almost two thirds of the measures in this new Crime and Policing Bill (21 of 35 measures highlighted in the Government press release) have been copied and pasted from the last Government’s announcements. Copy and pasting at this level would make even Rachel Reeves blush.
‘Labour had fourteen years to come up with new ideas – but all they have done is copied and pasted what the last Government had already announced.
‘Labour’s funding settlement next year for Police Forces leaves them £118m short after accounting for salary rises, inflation and the national insurance hike – putting 1,800 police officers at risk.
‘The most recent data on police officer numbers already shows a drop in police numbers under Labour in September 2024 compared to March 2024. Police forces are warning that this will get worse this year due to Labour’s inadequate funding settlement.
‘Making shoplifting goods under £200 triable either way means these cases could end up in Crown Court Jury trials – leading to possible one year plus delays in hearing cases instead of a few weeks in the Magistrates Court.
‘Shoplifting under £200 is already a criminal offence triable in the Magistrates Court. Magistrates can already sentence shoplifters stealing under £200 to up to 12 months in prison – so this new measures risks introducing huge delays with no extra time in prison for perpetrators. It is not clear that the Government has actually thought this through properly.’
