Plans to electronically tag burglars, robbers and thieves will see simply 1,500 crooks monitored

Plans to electronically tag critical burglars, robbers and thieves will see simply 1,500 crooks monitored – regardless of 1.5 million offences being recorded final 12 months.

The flagship scheme introduced final week by Prime Minister Boris Johnson was heralded as a ‘recent dedication’ to tackling crime.

However The Mail on Sunday can reveal that it’ll apply to solely a tiny fraction of offenders. 

Authorities sources stated the scheme can be a ‘managed research’ throughout 19 of 43 police forces in England and Wales and apply to criminals sentenced to 12 months or longer.

Plans to electronically tag critical burglars, robbers and thieves will see simply 1,500 crooks monitored. The scheme introduced final week by Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured)

John Apter, of the Police Federation, stated: ‘What is required, greater than knee-jerk plans or gimmicks, is long-term, centrally funded funding in policing and the broader felony justice system, in order that we will plan for the right here and now and the longer term.’ 

Final 12 months, police recorded 1.52million offences of theft, theft or housebreaking. However Ministry of Justice officers expect simply 1,500 burglars, thieves and robbers to be added to the 14,000 different criminals who’re already being monitored with the tags by an prolonged trial scheme first launched final 12 months.

Doubts have additionally been forged about whether or not tagging criminals cuts crime.

A 2017 an instructional evaluate commissioned by the School of Policing discovered that digital monitoring of offenders, together with utilizing GPS knowledge, ‘was not related to a statistically important discount in re-offending charges (nonetheless measured)’.

However Ministry of Justice sources insisted that the brand new scheme can be a ‘strong’ managed research of the effectiveness of the tags, with the opposite half the nation appearing because the ‘management group’.

They stated that the School of Policing report preceded the introduction of the GPS tags in England and Wales.

The Ministry of Justice stated that there was ‘sturdy proof’ that digital tags act as a deterrent (inventory picture)

Sources claimed that the tags would have a deterrent impact, significantly because the tag wearers’ places can be mapped in opposition to crime knowledge.

Of six forces presently finishing up trials with GPS taggings, solely Humberside Police has stated that the units act as a deterrent.

Labour Shadow Dwelling Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds accused the federal government of ‘all speak and no motion,’ whereas Simon Foster, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner which has trialled the GPS tags, stated: ‘If the Authorities was critical about beating crime it could put collectively a correct plan speaking about the true points going through policing.’

Final week’s crime pledge additionally included proposals to finish restrictions on the usage of stop-and-search, the extension of the usage of sobriety tags and offenders finishing up unpaid work whereas on probation. 

The Ministry of Justice stated there was ‘sturdy proof’ that tags act as a deterrent. 

A Ministry of Justice spokesman stated: ‘Tags are already used for a variety of different crimes and almost 14,000 offenders are presently carrying one.

‘Tagging robbers, burglars and thieves is simply the most recent a part of our efforts to ramp up their use and there’s sturdy proof they act as a deterrent.’