SYRACUSE — U.S. Representative Daniel Maffei (D–DeWitt) on April 11 announced he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would require a kill switch to deter thieves and help end a “violent epidemic” of smartphone thefts. The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman used that language in a news release to describe the thefts. Schneiderman joined […]
SYRACUSE — U.S. Representative Daniel Maffei (D–DeWitt) on April 11 announced he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would require a kill switch to deter thieves and help end a “violent epidemic” of smartphone thefts.
The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman used that language in a news release to describe the thefts.
Schneiderman joined Maffei, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler, and New York State Senator David Valesky (D–Oneida) at Syracuse City Hall to discuss the proposed legislation.
The Smartphone Theft Prevention Act has sponsors in both the House and U.S. Senate, according to Maffei. U.S. Representative Jose Serrano (D–15) introduced the legislation.
It also has a companion bill in the Senate, Maffei said.
If a thief steals the phone, the technology would enable users to access their devices remotely and disable access to their private information.
“You would be protected from anybody trying to get your personal identification … Nobody would ever be able to use your phone again, and therefore, why steal it,” Maffei said.
If the companies will not do it themselves, then lawmakers want to make sure citizens are protected, he contended.
But Maffei and Schneiderman said they are hopeful that phone manufacturers will respond this year, with some pressure from lawmakers.
“The crime wave will end as soon as all the manufacturers install kill switches, so you can cancel it like a credit card,” Schneiderman said.
The effort has to be industry-wide, and it has to be something “that the crooks know everyone has the capability of using,” he noted.
Schneiderman also used the appearance to announce that State Senator Valesky has joined the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) Initiative.
Launched in early 2013, S.O.S. is an international coalition that includes prosecutors, police chiefs, attorneys general, public officials, and consumer activists.
Schneiderman, along with San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and London Mayor Boris Johnson co-chair the initiative. Initiative members are “committed” to pressing the industry to find an effective way to combat the rise of “often violent” robberies involving smartphones.
The coalition already includes Miner and Fowler.
The initiative aims to encourage the smartphone industry to implement “meaningful” solutions to stop “Apple Picking,” or the theft of mobile-communications devices such as smartphones and tablets, according to Schneiderman’s office.
Scope of the problem
Even as most types of property crime are falling, in communities across the U.S. and in the U.K., the theft of smartphones has “spiked dramatically,” according to Schneiderman’s office.
In his remarks to the media, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler provided some statistics about smartphone robberies in the city of Syracuse in the last few years and how they compare to the overall number of robberies in those years.
Of the 399 robberies the Syracuse police investigated in 2011, 89 targeted smartphones, representing 22 percent of the total figure, Fowler said.
A year later, police investigated 465 robberies, including 121, or 26 percent, that targeted smartphones.
With the increase in the overall robbery figure, the department assigned more investigators to those incidents in 2013, Fowler said.
As a result, the overall figure fell to 422 robberies in 2013. But while the overall number declined, the incidence of smartphone robberies increased to 146, or 35 percent of the total, according to Fowler.
“So, robberies overall were down in 2013. However, robberies of cell phones increased, so therefore, this should explain to you the full magnitude of this problem,” he added.
One in three thefts in the U.S. involves a mobile-communications device, according to Schneiderman’s office. Consumer Reportsestimates that smartphone thieves victimized 1.6 million Americans in 2012.
Street-level thieves feed a massive global marketplace for stolen phones that is too large or lucrative for any single community to stop, Schneiderman contends.
If thieves steal mobile devices in the U.S. and have trouble accessing domestic cell networks, they can reactivate the devices to work in foreign countries. In Hong Kong, for example, iPhones are worth upward of $2,000 apiece, Schneiderman said in his remarks to the media.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com