Watch out for phone thieves

Watch out for phone thieves

Here’s the latest on mobile phone theft in your area.

Mobile phone thieves operate on pedal cycle and electric bikes, please be vigilant when leaving transport hubs.

- Avoid texting or emailing whilst walking
- Use handsfree headphones when making/recieving calls
- If your're using sat-nav avoid staying close to the roadside
- Use lanyard phone cases that strap on your wrist
- When walking to destination, stay vigilant, especially cyclist

We’ve put hundreds more officers on the frontlines of community crime-fighting teams, upping visible patrols in the right ‘hot spots’ so we can deter and catch criminals. These officers are working hard to bear down on mobile phone crime in London, arresting phone thieves on the street, shutting down vendors trading stolen devices and dismantling international criminal gangs.

We have now almost halved phone theft in Westminster, where it was most concentrated, following an intensive crackdown which has seen hundreds of arrests and thousands of phones recovered. After campaigning by the Met, Apple has also made a global change to its security system that better ensures stolen phones cannot be reused or resold – disrupting a highly organised international business model worth millions.

But we know there is more to do. That’s why we’re stepping up our use of technology, increasing our operations and working with phone companies to make it less appealing for criminals to commit these crimes in the first place.

You can report an incident of theft online at https://www.met.police.uk. 

We want your help to shape the future of policing across London. We are seeking your views on our new inclusion strategy to ensure that the Met is a police service that is trusted, representative and more effective at keeping London safe. You can have your say on our Inclusion Strategy consultation which runs until Thursday 26 November.