Dear Congresswoman Pelosi,
I am writing about an issue in the interaction of technology, crime, and personal safety. I am a resident of San Francisco and live in the 12th District, so I approach you as my representative.
Here in the Castro, as in many urban areas, we are suffering with a crime wave of smartphone muggings. The standard mugging now involves one mugger grabbing the phone and running off, while one or more accomplices lay in wait to ambush and assault the victim if they give chase. A good friend of mine was mugged this way last week, and the reports of similar muggings keep coming in.
While there are things individuals and the community can do to protect ourselves, I think phone manufacturers and carriers can act far more effectively. The problem is that there is no financial incentive for them to take action. On the contrary, they benefit financially every time a phone is stolen and a replacement must be purchased, or someone who acquires a stolen phone pays for cellular service.
I would like you to sponsor legislation that would require smartphone manufacturers and mobile carriers to include features that would render a stolen phone inoperative. Phones that don't work have no value and aren't worth stealing.
In Australia, it seems that phone theft has been reduced by blacklisting stolen devices from operating on all mobile networks.
The story notes that since Australia adopted this system, the number of stolen mobile phones have dropped dramatically. Since 2004, the number of phones in the country have jumped to 26 million from 15 million – but the number of stolen phones is down 25%.
Smartphones like the iPhone and Android pose an additional challenge, since they have a great deal of value even when they can't be used as a mobile phone. A better solution would "brick" the phone so it can't be used at all. For example, this could be done with some kind of remote kill code, or a timeout that bricks the device if it's not online and a code isn't entered periodically.
This approach will not be effective if only a small number of phones have those features. Thieves must know that most smartphones won't be worth stealing, so anti-theft features must be present on all new phones sold and made available as updates to old models. While we could hope that phone manufacturers would step up and do this on their own, it seems likely that it will require legislation to force them to act.
Will you sponsor legislation to address this issue and require smartphones to include anti-theft features? The personal safety of millions is at stake.
with sincere thanks,
Josh Susser
San Francisco