Apple has made a global security change to allow stolen phone “identifiers” to be shared with police, so the handsets can be tracked and found if they reappear in circulation.
The update has been made in agreement with London’s Metropolitan Police to help protect mobile phone users and make stolen phones unusable.
The technology company and Britain’s biggest police force said the change would “disrupt a highly organised international business model worth millions”. Samsung and Google are also making security changes to tackle the issue.
The Met Police announced on Thursday that it had almost halved phone theft in Westminster, in the heart of London, following a crackdown involving hundreds of arrests and the recovery of thousands of phones.
The force’s chief, Sir Mark Rowley, has been campaigning for two and a half years for companies to turn stolen handsets into “unusable bricks”.
Commissioner Rowley called for legislation to require all phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and reconnections to “ensure transparency and accountability across the industry”.
The Met has asked the Home Office to begin preparing legislation to introduce minimum technical standards so that any phone stolen in the UK is effectively put out of action.
At a conference on phone theft in March, the Met called for antitheft protection to be switched on by default, for stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and for better access to IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data to make it easier to return devices to their owners.
Commissioner Rowley said on Thursday: “I gave an ultimatum to tech firms – take urgent steps to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or we will call on government to step in and legislate.
“For the first time, we are routinely sharing intelligence on stolen devices, building a joint picture of how these phones move and whether they reappear in circulation. That partnership is already making a difference. 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.”
He said the data Apple has on things like reactivations and future uses of phones could also help them know if they were being broken down for parts or where they are being exported to.
He said that in London’s West End, where phone crime was most concentrated, phone theft had fallen by 50 per cent through targeted policing.
The new agreement between the Met and Apple will create a joint intelligence picture to track stolen phones. Early data shows that a significant number of stolen phones have not been successfully reactivated, significantly reducing their value to criminals.
Kate Adams, senior vice president of government affairs at Apple, said: “Keeping our users, their devices, and their data safe is at the heart of what we do. That includes building industry-leading security features that significantly reduce the motivation for criminals to target people in the first place.”
The Met cited a survey of 1,109 adults carried out last month that found public support for stronger measures. It said 83 per cent of people backed the permanent blocking of stolen smartphones.
The Met has some of the highest rates per 1,000 people for personal robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales, with phones a “significant” problem.
The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with a device stolen in London worth more in countries such as China because it has none of the government restrictions put in place there.
In the UK, the Met has seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.
The Met has staged a blitz on phone crime since the city’s reputation for safety became tarnished by the phone crime wave.
It said that in the 12 months from June last year to May this year, the number of thefts and robberies in which phones were stolen fell by 14,000, a reduction of 18 per cent on the previous year, and that the first five months of this year saw 6,700 fewer, a drop of 20.6 per cent.
Westminster, where between 69 per cent and 72 per cent of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones, has seen a reduction of 45.8 per cent so far this year.
The Met has seized more than 3,500 illegally modified e-bikes and e-scooters since January last year because offenders are increasingly using these high-powered bikes to snatch phones and evade police.
This month, officers launched a 10-day crackdown, code-named Operation Reckoning, carrying out arrests of prolific and violent phone thieves, executing search warrants at shops suspected of handling stolen goods, and deploying specialist pursuit drivers, known as ‘interceptors’, to track and detain offenders on e-bikes.
In April, three mobile phone handlers pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods following a year-long Met investigation into the UK’s largest mobile phone smuggling network. The group was responsible for trafficking up to 40,000 stolen devices from the UK to China between 2024 and last year – about 40 per cent of all phones stolen in London during that time.
In the same month, the police force seized more than 1,000 suspected stolen mobile phones during a raid on a shop in north-west London. Earlier this year, officers made 248 arrests and recovered 770 stolen devices during a four-week crackdown.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said “decisive and co-ordinated action” from the mobile phone industry was long overdue to prevent stolen handsets being used, sold and repurposed around the globe.
He said: “I’ve seen for myself how Google and Samsung have introduced some advanced security features and I welcome Apple and the Met reaching an agreement to protect mobile phone users and make stolen phones unusable.”
