London's Metropolitan Police have given technology companies until the end of this week to update it on what they are doing to make phones stolen in the British capital impossible to use.
Phones stolen on the UK's streets can be exported, reactivated and resold overseas within days, sometimes for more than they cost new in Britain, making them attractive target for criminals, says the force.
The Met wants a kind of poison pill to make resetting phones more difficult, with requirements for multifactor authentication and time delays, moves to stop parts being sold without device matching serial numbers, and the ability to block devices globally.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told the International Mobile Phone Crime Conference in London in March that he did not understand why major technology companies had not done more to address the problem.
Commissioner Rowley gave Apple, Google and Samsung a June 5 deadline to come up with proposals or the force would formally ask the government to legislate to compel them to take action.
The Met said it has now written to the companies requesting an update and gave them five working days to respond, which ends on Friday. The force said it will then “consider our next steps” and “calling for legislation remains a live option”.
London has in recent years been blighted by what has been described as “epidemic” levels of mobile phone theft, damaging its reputation as a safe place to live in and visit.
Thefts peaked in 2024, when 70,262 phones were stolen but action by the Met reduced that by 12 per cent in 2025.
But the Met has stressed that what looks like a street‑level snatch is in fact the entry point to a transnational criminal business worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Commissioner Rowley told the conference that mobile phone theft has evolved into a global organised crime business which policing alone cannot stop, while stolen devices continue to hold significant resale value overseas.
“We have over two years of extended and constructive conversations with parts of the technology industry, and we are ready to continue working with them,” he said.
“But now is the time to move from discussion to delivery. Every delay means more people enduring the stress, disruption and fear of having their phone stolen.”
According to police data, 75 per cent of phones stolen in London are smuggled abroad, with about a quarter of those ending up in Algeria.
Last year, police confiscated 1,000 stolen mobile phones at Heathrow Airport, which were destined for North Africa.
It recently emerged that children as young as 14 have been recruited by gangs to steal phones in London, earning hundreds of pounds.
London's reputation has also been tarnished by “Rolex ripper” robberies in which people wearing expensive watches are targeted, often involving sophisticated spotter gangs.
Apple, Samsung and Google have been approached for comment.
