Yesterday a new bill was proposed to Parliament, which seeks to finally tackle the rising crime rate in the UK. The bill’s introduction follows reports of a 10% increase in crime from 2023 to 2024.
This increase has been noticed by ordinary British citizens, as many have started to feel unsafe on their streets. The last year saw a notable rise in mobile phone snatchings, shoplifting, burglaries, and deadly knife attacks. In many cases the police are unable to even investigate these crimes, citing a lack of resources, undermining the public’s confidence in the police. Today the government presented their response to the growing problem: the new crime and policing bill.
The government says that this bill is part of their mission to make the streets safer. It is claimed to be the largest legislative update for crime and policing in a decade. The aim of this bill, according to the government’s proposal, is to “create safer streets throughout the UK by tackling some of the most serious issues facing society, such as knife crime, violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour, cybercrime, theft, child sexual abuse, and terrorism.”
The bill aims to take strong action against knife crime, stalking, spiking, the criminal and sexual exploitation of children, and terrorism. Additionally, the bill gives measures for the police to search homes without warrants when they are associated with phone snatchings and other thefts.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, as she introduced the new bill, 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.”
She continues by stating the government’s commitment to tackling the serious crimes that the UK is facing, such as knife crime and violence against women and children.
Police have more power to tackle phone thefts.
Phone thieves on bikes and motorcycles have significantly increased on busy streets in the UK. This has affected big cities such as London and Manchester. Between January 2023 and October 2023, there were 39,532 reports of stolen mobile phones. In London, around 157 mobile phones are stolen every day, according to data published by the Mayor of London using data from September 2022 to August 2024.
On the 6th of February, the Met police announced they had recovered 1000 phones and arrested 230 people linked to the phone thefts in London. In 2023 alone, crimes involving stolen phones rose 150%.
Police have been struggling to catch the thieves and retrieve the stolen phones. According to a long read by the Daily Mail, these phones end up in China after the criminals sell them to brokers who are usually directly linked to criminal organisations. Therefore, police have limited time to locate the phones in London before they depart for another continent.
Due to this, the new bill offers ways to speed up the process of police searching the houses where phones are reported electronically geolocated to be held. They aim to act during the “golden hour” and recover the stolen items for the victims.
“For the last few years, our towns and cities have seen street theft shoot up, as organised gangs have been targeting mobile phones,” Yvette Cooper said. “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,” Cooper continued.
Knife crime is on the rise.
After the devastating Southport knife attack this past July, knife crime became an issue with dramatically increased awareness. This attack drew attention to the number of stabbings around the country and also put some pressure on the government to take action so that such incidents won’t be repeated. By the end of last year, police reported 55,000 recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument.
The bill offers the recruitment of 13,000 extra neighbourhood policing roles, with a named officer in every community. The proposal would enhance the protection of the British neighbourhood by concentrating on a single location, which would expedite action.
“Neighbourhood Watch is delighted that the government is continuing to show its commitment to neighbourhood policing,” CEO of Neighbourhood Watch, John Hayward-Cripps, declared.
“The reduction in police funding over the last 15 years has been particularly felt in neighbourhood policing, resulting in low public confidence and crimes going unreported, due to the perception that the police do not have the resources to investigate,” Hayward-Cripps continued.
The three points that increase police powers to take action on knife crime would be: “creating a power to seize, retain, and destroy bladed articles found on private property; increasing the maximum penalty for the sale of dangerous weapons to under-18s; and creating a new criminal offence of possessing a bladed article with the intent to cause harm.”
The bill will also bring in increased protections for retail workers. Additionally, it will introduce tougher sentences on drug possession and drink spiking while establishing new offences related to the sexual trafficking of children with a specific focus on AI-generated images.
