Sadiq Khan’s phone snatching crackdown is a massive success

London’s ongoing crackdown on smartphone snatchers is yielding impressive results, with phone theft halved in some areas of the capital.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the Metropolitan Police are leading a multi-pronged effort to reduce phone theft in the city, from hunting down and arresting prolific offenders to partnering with tech firms to make phones less attractive to thieves.

The Met has announced that thanks to policing efforts, phone theft has fallen by 50% in the West End, which is a hotspot for phone snatchers in London.

From January to May, the number phone thefts recorded in London overall is down by 6,700 (21%) compared to the same period last year. In Westminster, phone thefts have plummeted by 45.8% so far this year, meaning 4,500 fewer phones have been stolen this year in Westminster alone.

Early June saw the Met launch Operation Reckoning, a 10-day crackdown on phone theft that saw officers carry out arrests of phone thieves, search shops suspected of handling stolen phones, and deploying interceptors to track and arrest phone snatchers on e-bikes.

E-bikes are commonly used by phone snatchers to quickly escape after a theft, which results in criminals waving dangerously through busy pedestrian areas.

The Met seized more than 3,500 illegally modified e-bikes and scooters since January last year, and it is expanding its own fleet of high-powered e-bikes to better allow officers to pursue and detain phone snatchers.

“New drones and Sur-Ron bikes, backed by record City Hall funds, are turbocharging the Met’s effort to tackle mobile phone crime, allowing us to take the fight directly to those stealing phones and make London’s streets safer,” Khan said.

“This has led to 13,000 fewer phone thefts in London over the last year, and my record funding has also doubled the number of officers in the West End, leading to a 50% drop in phone thefts in the area.”

The Mayor has put record funding behind efforts to curb smartphone theft in London, and it is clear that the programme and the efforts by the Met are having a significant impact.

Working with phone companies to tackle theft

The Metropolitan Police is working with smartphone companies to tackle phone theft, and the Met this week reached an agreement with Apple which will see stolen phones made unusable.

Under the agreement, stolen device identifiers will be shared between the Met and Apple, allowing stolen phones to be tracked and identify if they reappear in circulation.

Apple has also made a global change to its smartphone security system which ensures that stolen devices cannot be reused or resold.

Google and Samsung have also made security changes to tackle the issue of phone theft and make their devices less attractive to potential phone snatchers.

“If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them. We are driving up the risk for offenders while cutting off the reward,” said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

“This is an important step, but it must not stop here. If you are stealing phones in London, the reality is changing fast.”

“The opportunities are shrinking, the risks are rising, and we are determined to dismantle this criminal model completely,” he said.

Rowley has also written to the Home Secretary asking the government to require all phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and reconnections.

He has also asked the government to legislate that any phone stolen in the UK must be made effectively unusable by its manufacturer, a measure which is supported by 83% of the public.

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