Boris Johnson's 'Beating Crime' plan: PM proposes ‘chain gangs’ in high-viz jackets to punish anti-social behaviour

Stop and search powers are set to be enhanced and burglars will be electronically tagged 24 hours a day under Boris Johnson’s new strategy to tackle crime.

The Prime Minister used his first day after leaving self-isolation following a positive coronavirus contact to unveil a series of measures in his new Beating Crime Plan.

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At a glance: the key points

- Boris Johnson promised the wider use of public “chain gangs” to tackle yobs as he defended his approach to law and order in the face of police anger over a pay freeze.

- It will include a permanent relaxing of conditions on the use of Section 60 stop and search powers, under which officers can search someone without reasonable grounds in an area where serious violence is expected.

- Mr Johnson’s reforms for England and Wales will also see the extension of a pilot announced earlier this year which involves burglars and thieves being made to wear GPS tags on release from prison.

- The strategy will also trial the use of alcohol tags – which detect alcohol in the sweat of the wearer – on prison leavers in Wales in a bid to reduce alcohol-related crime.

- Plans were also unveiled for league tables for forces’ 101 and 999 call-answering times, a national online platform to allow the public to contact police, and efforts against county lines drug gangs to be intensified.

- There will also be a £17 million package to persuade young people who go to an emergency department with a stab wound or have contact with police to stay away from violence.

What’s been said

Talking during a visit to Surrey Police headquarters in Guildford, Boris Johnson said: “Somebody’s anti-social behaviour may be treated as a minor crime but it could be deeply distressing to those who are victims.

“If you are guilty of anti-social behaviour and you are sentenced to unpaid work, as many people are, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be out there in one of those fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs, visibly paying your debt to society.”

On stop and search, he said: “I think that giving the police the backing that they need in law to stop someone, to search them, to relieve them of a dangerous weapon – I don’t think that’s strong-arm tactics, I think that’s a kind and a loving thing to do.

“The people who often support Stop and Search most passionately are the parents of the kids who are likely themselves to be the victims of knife crime.”

Reacting to the PM’s announcement, Surrey Police Federation chairwoman Mel Warnes said: “Our colleagues should not be used as public relations pawns by politicians.

“I very much doubt any of our colleagues will be smiling at the thought of meeting two people who have decided against giving them any sort of pay rise despite everything police officers across the country have done these past 18 months.

“Police officers have given everything. The Government has given us nothing.

“Frankly, their visit is not welcomed by, I am sure, the majority of hard-working police officers.”

Background

The plans will permanently reverse limits imposed on police stop and search by Mr Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May during her time as home secretary.

Section 60 powers give officers the right to search people in a defined area during a specific time period when they expect serious violence, and officers can look for weapons before they can be used, or those used in a recent attack.

The permanent change follows a nationwide pilot which reduced the level of authorisation needed to impose a Section 60 order, and lowered the degree of certainty required.

But on the day that further details of the Prime Minister’s crime-blitz strategy are revealed, chairman of the Police Federation John Apter took a letter to Number 10 setting out officers’ anger over a pay freeze and objections to how the plan was announced.

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The Police Federation of England and Wales, representing more than 130,000 officers from the rank of constable to chief inspector, passed a motion of no confidence in Ms Patel last week in a row over pay.

Officers who earn more than £24,000 are subject to a pay freeze this year, compared with NHS staff who will receive 3%, and firefighters and local government workers who will get 1.5%.

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