Met Police amongst forces to be able to search houses without a warrant

A new bill introduced will give more power to police to help tackle “snatch theft”.

Transcript

00:00A police inspector in London and across the country will be able to sign off an entry

00:06to a premises rather than waiting for a judge or magistrate in order to act during the golden

00:13hour just after a threat and increase chances of a conviction.

00:18Snatch thefts of mobile phones and bags have more than doubled in the past year with more

00:23than 200 incidents in 2024, a problem particularly rife in the capital.

00:30But just 0.8% of these thefts led to a charge despite some victims offering police tracking

00:37devices.

00:38Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said that for the last few years our towns and cities

00:44have seen thefts shoot up as organised gangs target mobile phones.

00:50So how do the Londoners feel about the new law?

00:53I mean there's a huge risk factor against it I mean it feels like an invasion of privacy

00:58if anything that's my initial reaction was it does feel like it's just breaching a little

01:04bit too far into things because you'd want things to feel like you are being protected

01:09I mean if they are able to you know scan some stuff or search things to a point where you

01:15feel like your privacy is being lost and then just be able to come into a property

01:20with just that as evidence doesn't feel like it's sufficient enough.

01:25I think if they think or if they've got some sort of evidence that something has been stolen

01:32and the persons are linked with that then I think they can go in without a warrant that's

01:38my opinion.

01:40I guess one assumes that the police would like only exercise that power in within the

01:49context that like where it's a reasonable use of that power.

01:54It sounds a bit extreme for something as simple as a phone if it was and if the phone was

02:02part of a bigger crime then I think I would say it could be justified.

02:10Just for us I'd say if it's part of something bigger then it sounds like it would make sense

02:17to me.

02:19I know that it's been a huge thing the last couple of months especially with like phone

02:23thefts up in London people going around on scooters and stuff like that.

02:27I can understand that there is going to be a need a course of action to try and find

02:32out where they go and everything like that but say there is an instance where for some

02:39reason someone drops it in someone else's garden for some reason and then that person

02:45gets you know raided for the sake of it because they found it there and then the emotional

02:50attachment to being raided is not there's a lot of implications to what could happen

02:56from that.