Judge: Make it law to carry a phone so we can track crooks

CARRYING a mobile phone could be made compulsory in order to cut crime, one of the country’s most senior judges predicted yesterday.

Sir Geoffrey Vos said a law which forced people to carry a mobile phone that was permanently switched on would make it easier to track and catch criminals.

He said that since Britons have accepted growing levels of surveillance, a compulsory mobile phone law may not seem a radical idea in ten years’ time. The suggestion from Sir Geoffrey, who as Chancellor of the High Court is the country’s chief property and financial judge, echoes George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which everyone is closely monitored by the state.

The judge said that most of us already share our location using smartphones, and that surveillance by using mobiles could play a major role in tackling crime. In a lecture to solicitors’ professional body the Law Society, Sir Geoffrey said: ‘We live in a world of increasing levels of surveillance. We can and do photograph, film and record everything that happens to us

‘I think there will be far fewer contested criminal cases in the future, mainly because of the surveillance. Most people carry their smartphones on their person at all times with their GPS location switched on. They do this voluntarily, but if the legislators were, for example, to require citizens to carry phones at all times, it would be even more difficult to avoid detection.

‘As society seems to accept more and more surveillance, I wonder how radical the change I have mentioned will seem to the population in ten, 15 or 20 years’ time.’

The idea comes at a time when judges are pushing through a £1billion scheme to shift large numbers of legal hearings from courtrooms to online and video procedures.