Police to be given new powers to tackle persistent offenders as Labour plans street crime crackdown
City and town centre areas are to become “zero tolerance” zones for anti-social behaviour under plans by Labour to tackle street crime.
Police will be given powers to target persistent offenders with respect orders – a new revamped form of Asbos – that allow them to ban offenders from city centres if they have been plaguing the public with harassment, intimidating behaviour, drug use, littering and street drinking.
If they try to return to the city or town centres, they will face criminal sanctions ranging from fines to community payback punishments for breaching the order.
Police hit squads are to be ordered to target knifepoint robbery hotspots, particularly when the new iPhones are released amid growing concern at a 40 per cent rise in snatch thefts and knife-enabled crime.
Police will also get new powers to crack down on nuisance quad bikes terrorising rural communities. Officers will be able to scrap noisy dirt and quad bikes within 48 hours without giving a warning, instead of having to keep them impounded for two weeks.
‘No one comes and nothing is done’
In a speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will on Tuesday say that a Labour Government will rebuild respect for the rule of law, claiming the Tories left too many people feeling that “no one comes and nothing is done” when crimes were committed.
“You don’t get social justice if you don’t have justice. Respect is the very foundation of our democracy. Those Labour values are at the heart of all we do. And they are at the heart of our mission for safer streets too,” she will say.
“Where rising street crime has driven people from our high streets, corroding the fabric of our communities, this Labour Government will bring in new powers on antisocial behaviour, shoplifting and off-road bikes and put neighbourhood police back on the beat.”
Ms Cooper reaffirmed the party’s manifesto pledge to recruit 13,000 extra police and police community support officers to the 43 forces in England and Wales. They will be paid for by mandating closer collaboration between the constabularies to make efficiency savings in areas like procurement.
Asbos, introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 1998, were ditched by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2014 for being too complex, bureaucratic and criminalising young people. They were replaced by civil injunctions which have been used infrequently by police as officers cannot arrest those who breach them.
The new respect orders would only be used against adults and targeted at persistent offenders. Although a civil order, breaching them would be a crime enabling police to arrest offenders. Breaching an Asbo carried a maximum five years in jail but Labour plans to consult on the custodial terms for respect orders.
Ms Cooper also announced a new knife enabled robbery taskforce, to combat a 13 per cent increase in the crime in the last year alone. Knife enabled robbery now makes up 42 per cent of all police-recorded knife crime.
The taskforce will bring together ministers, police chiefs and community safety partners, to set out best practice on policing geographic hotspots, blocking the onward pipeline of stolen goods and disrupting supply chains to disincentivise theft.
The Home Office will work with the National Police Chief Council on week-long operations when violent robberies are likely to peak, including around the release of new iPhones. Labour has committed to halving knife crime within a decade.
Mobile phone companies will be told to introduce a “kill switch” that allows smartphones to be disabled as soon as they are stolen in an effort to address the soaring rate of muggings.
Ms Cooper will ask companies to present solutions at talks she will host dedicated to tackling the crime later this year. She wants companies to develop a safety feature that would prevent stolen phones being re-registered, rendering devices useless and potentially reducing the demand for stolen phones.
