Met chief gives phone firms deadline over thefts

The Metropolitan Police commissioner has given phone manufacturers a 1 June deadline to take action over stolen phones - or face being forced to do so by law.

Phone companies are leaving customers at risk until they take action to make stolen devices "unusable bricks", Sir Mark Rowley said.

The capital's police force has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales, among which phones are a "significant" problem.

Apple and Samsung, whose phones dominate the UK market, said they take device theft seriously and are both rolling out features to help thwart the black market for mobiles.

Sir Mark told delegates at the International Mobile Phone Crime Conference in central London he does not understand why the telecoms giants have not done more.

He said the Met would call on the Home Secretary to change laws to force phone companies to take action if necessary, and would encourage international law enforcement to do the same.

"I'm setting a clear public marker, if by 1 June, the industry has not come to the table in a genuinely serious and solution-focused way, with concrete commitments on stolen mobile phones... the Met will formally write to the Home Secretary to ask that she legislates," Sir Mark said.

The force wants to make resetting phones more difficult, with requirements for multi-factor authentication and time delays; moves to stop parts being sold without device matching serial numbers, and the ability to block devices globally in real time.

"For nearly three years we have sought meaningful engagement with phone manufacturers and their response to date does not match the scale of harm and risk to their customers."

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said there is "no reason" why in a year's time there should not be fully accessible serial numbers for officials and "kill switches" for stolen phones.

The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with a device stolen in London worth more in countries like China because it has none of the government restrictions put in place by authorities there.

In the UK, the Met had seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.

Sir Mark said this exploitation of children was an "entry point into organised crime".

"Children recruited to snatch phones for quick cash are being groomed into criminal networks, normalised into offending behaviour and pushed further into exploitation."

"What begins as one device on a street corner becomes a pathway into debt, coercion, violence and deeper criminality."

The Met wants anti-theft protection switched on by default, stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and better access to IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data to make it easier to return devices to their owners.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners.

Between 2017 and February 27 2024, a total 587,498 phones were stolen in London excluding the City, 13,998 of which were recovered, and 573,500 were not.

Delegates from countries including Japan, Brazil, Spain, and the United States attended the conference, the first of its kind.

Sir Mark said weak security means criminals can still bypass locks, alter IMEIs, and sell parts that are not cryptographically tied to devices.

He said there would be no criminal market if a stolen phone were unusable, and called for similar action to that taken by the car industry to make car radios less attractive to steal.

The commissioner said manufacturers have worked hard on data and financial security on phones but "far less attention" has been paid to the "physical safety of their customers".

"If a stolen phone were to become an unusable brick and the parts were not recyclable, there would be no criminal market," Sir Mark said.

"I do not understand why tech companies leave their clients at risk despite two or three years of discussions.

"Until this device is worthless, the market will remain attractive to organised crime," he added.

Samsung said it had already implemented features requested by the Met, including making IMEI numbers visible on locked screens.

The company stated it has fulfilled direct requests from the Home Office and contacted 40 million UK customers with security guidance, asserting it takes the matter "extremely seriously."

Apple highlighted its "stolen device protection," which prevents thieves from changing account settings even with a passcode.

The firm noted that its latest software beta (iOS 26.4) now enables this feature by default, moving toward the "default-on" protection requested by police.

Last month the Met said that the number of recorded phone thefts in London went from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year.

Separate figures available on the Met's crime data website show that in 2023 there were 52,820 thefts from the person where a phone was taken, and 14,326 robberies; the figures for 2024 were 70,249 thefts and 11,125 robberies; and for 2025 61,292 thefts and 10,207 robberies.

In the space of the month to mid-February, the Met arrested 248 people over phone theft and recovered around 770 stolen handsets.

The force is using high-powered e-bikes and drones as part of its operations to stop phone theft.

But in a report for the London Policing Board, Sir Mark warned the Met remains "an outlier" for the number of personal robberies per thousand people, and theft from the person.

The force also solves one of the smallest proportion of these offences compared with others in England and Wales.

In the year to the end of December 2025, 6.9% of personal robbery cases ended with a suspect being identified and dealt with, while the rate was 0.9% for theft from the person.

In Westminster, between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones.

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