UK Home Secretary hosts summit on mobile phone theft

Above: Yvette Cooper and Diana Johnson host phone theft summit.
Courtesy Home Office 

The summit comes as street crime has soared by 43% nationwide, driven by a significant rise in snatch theft, including of mobile phones.   

For too long crimes like these have been neglected, which is why as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, the Home Secretary says she will legislate where necessary to ensure police have the powers they need to treat this with the seriousness it warrants, and police are expected to agree to step up enforcement activity nationwide.     

This will include better use of intelligence to drive more hotspot policing and targeted operations, particularly around high-risk periods such as Christmas and when a new phone is released.     

The Home Secretary urged companies including Apple, Google and Samsung, and law enforcement to join forces to build on existing anti-theft security measures and help design out and disincentivise phone theft, by making phones effectively worthless to criminals.    

She called for a much deeper dive on all available sources of data and intelligence to build a much more comprehensive diagnosis of the problems and scale of the criminal market, to drive joint solutions.  

All in attendance agreed to greater collaboration between police and tech by significantly boosting intelligence sharing, on both sides and to reconvene in three months’ time.

It follows the government kickstarting the recruitment of 13,000 neighbourhood police officers, police community support officers and specials with £200 million investment so that every community will have a named, contactable officer who knows their patch.  

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Over the last few years, mobile phone thefts have shot up – often driven by organised crime – leaving our streets feeling less safe. That has to change.   

"I brought together tech companies and law enforcement today to pursue stronger action against organised criminality and to prevent phone theft on our streets. It was a significant step forward in addressing the need to come together as partners to disrupt, design-out and disincentivise these damaging crimes.   

"At the same time, this government is doubling new investment into neighbourhood policing to tackle theft on high streets and in our communities, to keep our streets safe."  

The commitment follows the Met Police’s significant recent intensification operation, which led to 1,000 phones seized and 230 arrests.  

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "I’m really pleased to have joined today’s roundtable discussion with mobile phone firms, the Home Secretary, Met Police and National Crime Agency to discuss our ongoing partnership-led approach to tackle mobile phone crime.

"The Met’s hard-working officers have stepped up their work in London to prevent and tackle mobile phone theft – with patrols and plain-clothed operations in hotspot areas and are increasingly using phone-tracking data and intelligence. This work is being backed up with record funding from City Hall which is boosting neighbourhood policing in our communities.

"But we know that we can’t arrest our way out of mobile phone crime – which has become a national and international issue and needs innovative solutions. I welcome recent security updates by leading mobile phone companies that we supported and we spoke today about how we can build on those and work together to ‘design out’ the scourge of mobile phone crime to build a safer London for all."

Aleyne Johnson, Director of Government and External Relations, Samsung UK, said: "Samsung is deeply committed to working closely with the Home Office, Mayor’s Office, the Met Police and authorities in London on the issue of mobile phone theft and related crimes and are encouraged by collaborative discussions held at the Mobile Phone Theft Summit today, to look at existing and potential new solutions to help combat this complex issue and improve the safety of mobile phone users.  

"We encourage all of our customers to protect their devices by setting up existing Android security and privacy features, like Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock and Remote Lock and our recent One UI 7 update has built further on those protections with new anti-theft features such as identity check, biometric authentication and security delay, all featured in our latest Galaxy S25 series."

Alex Rawle, Safety and Security Lead, Google UK said: "Android devices offer added protection for millions around the UK. We encourage users to make use of existing security and privacy features, like Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock and Remote Lock, to improve the safety of their devices and data. We welcome today’s summit and are committed to continue working with our partners to support efforts against mobile phone theft."

Gary Davis, Senior Director, Regulatory Legal, Apple, said: "Apple works closely with law enforcement bodies in the UK and globally to fight phone theft, and we welcome the opportunity to further collaborate at today’s event.  

"Apple has industry leading features that help users keep their devices and data safe. These include Activation Lock, a feature that is enabled automatically when Find My is activated and works in the background to make it more difficult for someone to use or sell your iPhone or iPad if it’s ever lost or stolen.  

"Stolen Device Protection adds additional security if a device is away from familiar locations. These are complemented by tools such as Recovery Key, a method to regain control if you lose access to your account and Find My, a tool that you can use to locate the device and protect your personal information."