The Metropolitan Police and Apple have joined forces to tackle the rising issue of phone thefts in London. This partnership aims to make stolen phones unusable, thereby reducing the incentive for criminals to steal them. The initiative has already shown promising results, with a significant drop in phone thefts in central London.
Phone theft has been a persistent problem in London, particularly in areas like Westminster, where a high percentage of personal robberies involve mobile devices. The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with devices stolen in London often finding their way to countries like China, where they can be sold without government restrictions.
The Impact of Apple’s Security Measures
Apple has introduced a new stolen device protection feature as a default setting in a recent global system update. This feature makes it extremely difficult for thieves to reactivate stolen iPhones, effectively turning them into “unusable bricks.” The Met Police has reported that the number of stolen phones being reactivated has dropped from 80% to just 20% in recent weeks.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has highlighted the importance of this collaboration. “If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them,” he said. The Met Police has also entered into an intelligence-sharing agreement with Apple, allowing both parties to track the movement of stolen devices and understand criminal patterns better.
The Role of Legislation and Technology
The Met Police has called on tech firms to make stolen phones harder to reuse and prevent criminals from profiting. Sir Mark Rowley has asked the home secretary for legislation to make phone companies publish data on stolen devices and enforce measures rendering handsets effectively unusable. This move is part of a broader effort to equip police with new powers to search properties without a warrant where stolen goods have been electronically located.
In addition to Apple, other tech giants like Samsung and Google are also making security changes to tackle the issue. The Met Police has employed e-bikes, drones, and live facial recognition to cut the number of phone thefts on the capital’s streets. Drones are being used as the force’s “eyes in the sky” to feed live footage to a dedicated control room, helping to identify thieves on e-bikes.
The Results So Far
The initiatives have already yielded positive results. Between June 2026 and May 2026, the number of thefts where phones were stolen fell by 14,000, a reduction of 18% on the previous year. In Westminster, where between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones, there has been a reduction of 45.8% so far this year.
Despite these successes, the Met Police acknowledges that there is still work to be done. Only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners. Between 2017 and February 27, 2026, a total of 587,498 phones were stolen in London excluding the City, with only 13,998 of them being recovered. The force also solves one of the smallest proportions of these offences compared with others in England and Wales.
The Met Police’s efforts to combat phone thefts are part of a broader strategy to make London’s streets safer. By working with tech companies and pushing for new legislation, they aim to reduce the number of phone thefts and make it harder for criminals to profit from this crime.
