Overview
- Apple has changed its systems to allow stolen-device identifiers to be shared with the Metropolitan Police and agreed to publish quarterly joint data to build a shared intelligence picture.
- London police ran a concentrated crackdown that included hundreds of arrests, shop search warrants and thousands of seized phones and modified e-bikes, with Westminster reporting almost a 50% fall in phone thefts.
- Early intelligence from the Met–Apple work shows a significant number of stolen phones have failed to be reactivated, which sharply reduces their resale value to organised crime.
- Samsung and Google have announced further security investments and the Met has asked the Home Office to draft laws requiring industry data transparency and minimum technical anti-theft standards.
- The campaign targets a cross-border network that trafficked as many as 40,000 UK phones overseas and aims to remove the profit incentive for street thieves so theft victims face less risk of being targeted.