Police will soon be able to search properties without obtaining a warrant for stolen phones or other electronically geotagged items under the government’s crime and policing bill, which will be put before parliament later today (25).
The measure is just one of dozens covered in the bill that has a particular focus on smaller offences such as theft and antisocial behaviour.
If the bill is approved, change to warrants would let police enter a property if location tagging shows that a stolen item is there and it is “not practicable” to get a warrant from a court.
This would particularly target phone theft, where someone’s “find my phone” function shows it is at a particular address, but would cover any stolen item that could be located using mobile signal, wifi, Bluetooth or tracking devices such as an AirTag.
A Home Office statement announcing the bill said this change would allow police to “act swiftly in the ‘golden hour’ of investigations”, meaning more stolen property could be retrieved.
Other previously announced proposals in the bill include so-called respect orders, under which people who regularly engage in antisocial behaviour could be jailed for up to two years, and new police powers to seize off-road motorbikes and other vehicles being used in an antisocial way.
Assaulting a shop worker will become a new offence in the new bill and it will also repeal an earlier law that said any shoplifting of items worth less than £200 would be automatically treated as a less serious crime.
The bill will also make drink spiking a specific offence and will specifically outlaw what is known as cuckooing, in which criminals use the homes of vulnerable people as bases for crimes.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, she there was a particular focus on street crime and antisocial behaviour in the bill.
She said: “For too long communities have had to put up with rising town centre and street crime and persistent antisocial behaviour, while neighbourhood police have been cut. And for years too little has been done to tackle the most serious violence of all, including knife crime and violence against women and children.
“That is why the new crime and policing bill is about taking back our streets and town centres, restoring respect for law and order, and giving the police and local communities the support and tools they need to tackle local crime.”
The bill will get its first reading in the Commons, with no vote, today.
