Police are set to get new powers to enter homes to retrieve stolen phones and bikes that have been tracked by their owners using GPS.
The Government has promised to crack down on theft and high street crime, arguing such offences have been neglected in recent years.
Under new legislation, introduced in Parliament today, police will be able to enter a residence without a warrant if the victim of theft can show GPS trackers – such as those on a smartphone – to prove the item is located inside.
The law would also apply to objects with trackers attached to them by their owners, such as bicycles and agricultural equipment.
Officers would no longer need a warrant to enter a home and search it if they have reason to believe a stolen item is contained inside, and if the decision has been approved by someone of inspector level.
The Home Office says it will speed up investigations and increase the chances of recovering stolen goods, particularly mobile phones snatched out of victims’ pockets or hands.
Victims of theft have previously complained at seeing their stolen device at a certain address on a GPS tracker, only to be told by police that there is little they can do about it.
The Government pushed back against any suggestion the policy could create resourcing pressures for police, insisting that it had been worked through with the support of policing organisations.
Sources pointed to a promise to recruit 13,000 extra neighbourhood policing roles, including a named officer in every community, with the target set for this parliamentary term.
The proposed new powers are part of wider law reforms designed to tackle theft and anti-social behaviour as well as the most serious violent and sexual offences.
The legislation is expected to become law by the end of this year, according to officials.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “For the last few years, our towns and cities have seen street theft shoot up, as organised gangs have been targeting mobile phones. But 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.”
The Crime and Policing Bill carries forward some work begun by the previous government – such as banning protesters from climbing on certain war memorials and giving police powers to make people remove face coverings.
Government sources claim it also contains a new emphasis on crimes they argue were “dismissed as low level” by the Tory administration.
One Government source said Cooper was focused on “tackling the most serious crimes”, including violence against women and girls, terrorism, knife crime and child sexual exploitation.
But they said the other side of the coin was the promise to rebuild trust in policing, both through improved conduct and tackling community crimes “that are blighting town centres and high streets across the country, where we have seen things like shoplifting, snatch theft and anti-social behaviour soar in recent years”.
“This is also about rectifying some very big emissions from the previous government. Fixing things on the local side, on town centre crime, on rebuilding public confidence.”
The bill will toughen punishments for shop theft of goods below £200, qnd introduce more protection for retail workers who are the victim of an assault.
Meanwhile, Respect Orders will effectively become the new “anti-social behaviour order (ASBO)”, giving police powers to ban nuisance vehicles such as off-road bikes and e-scooters on pavements.
The legislation also includes measures to bolster stalking and spiking laws, under plans to tackle violence against women and girls. And it will implement some of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Public order offences will make it illegal to climb on specific war memorials, and ban people from wearing face coverings to conceal their identity at designated protests.
The Government has already announced anti-knife crime measures to tackle knife sales, and measures to crack down on the use of AI in online child sexual abuse content.
Sources acknowledged that the changes could have a short-term “inflationary” effect on the prison population during a time of acute cell shortages.
However, they argued that an increase in early intervention and preventative measures would ultimately reduce the number of offenders serving longer terms.
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