Yvette Cooper announces fresh police crackdown on mobile phone thieves

Police crackdowns on mobile phone thieves will be timed to coincide with the release of new iPhones, the Home Secretary will announce today.

Yvette Cooper will say forces will launch intensive week-long operations to combat violent phone-snatchers when new handsets hit the market.

She will also confirm that 'respect orders' - a new type of punishment similar to anti-social behaviour orders, or 'Asbos' - will be launched next year.

In her speech at Labour Party conference in Liverpool today, Ms Cooper will say she wants to see an increased focus on knifepoint robbery, including those targeting mobiles.

A Labour spokesman said: 'The Home Office will work with the National Police Chiefs' Council on week-long intensification initiatives when violent robberies are likely to peak, including around the release of new iPhones.'

Apple's new iPhone 16, launched last week, costs up to £1,599.

Ms Cooper will say new figures show that in the last year of the Conservative government snatch thefts rose by 40 per cent, with almost 1,000 incidents a day, while shoplifting also rose to a 20-year high.

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But a package of new measures will ensure 'local communities can take back their streets from thugs and thieves'.

Robberies involving blades now make up 42 per cent all police-recorded knife crime, the Home Secretary will say.

Alongside the Government's commitment to recruiting 13,000 neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs, a new street crime action plan will see the creation of a new 'knife-enabled robbery taskforce'.

It will bring together ministers, police chiefs and community safety partners, to improve the way hotspots are policed and make it harder for thieves to sell on stolen items.

She will vow to 'rebuild respect for the rule of law' and say too many people feel that when crimes are committed 'no-one comes and nothing is done'.

Increasing neighbourhood policing – initially in town centres – will restore confidence to local high streets, Ms Cooper will add.

The Government will also deliver on its manifesto pledge to create a new standalone offence of assaulting a shopworker, the conference will hear.

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Ms Cooper will also work with mobile phone and car companies to tackle the rising levels of phone and vehicle theft.

The roll-out of respect orders will begin next year, the Home Secretary will say.

Labour's election manifesto said the measures will be used to 'ban persistent adult offenders from town centres, which will stamp out issues such as public drinking and drug use'.

It was previously thought the new punishment would be a type of 'out of court disposal' issued by the police.

But Ms Cooper will say they will be imposed by a civil court.

Breaching a respect order will be a criminal offence leading to 'tough penalties'.

Asbos were first introduced under Tony Blair's government in 1998 and scrapped a decade ago.

'Starting in towns and cities across the country 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 anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and off-road bikes and put neighbourhood police back on the beat,' Ms Cooper will say.