The Metropolitan Police have arrested 230 people and seized over 1,000 phones in a week-long operation targeting the £50 million-a-year trade in stolen mobile devices across London. The Met are using plain-clothed officers, tracking technology, and increased patrols in hotspot areas to combat the issue.
A clampdown on the "industrial-scale" crime of mobile phone-snatching across London has resulted in 230 people being arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the past week.
It said its work had been "ramped up" to deal with the £50m-a-year trade in stolen phones across the capital, with those responsible for thefts, handling, and onward criminal supply all being targeted.The Met said that the home secretary and Met Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens would discuss the issue of improving security on phones to prevent stolen devices from being easily resold.
He said: "It's frustrating because that's exactly where this sort of thing typically happens. I'm always telling people to be careful, but for one moment I forgot and my phone went off into the distance." In December, a designer from Tottenham told the BBC how she had felt unsupported by police after her phone was stolen, and ended up using tracking technology to trace it herself.
"By intensifying our efforts we're catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital."
MOBILE PHONE THEFT CRIME LONDON POLICE TECHNOLOGY SECURITY
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