UK Home Office calls on tech companies to snatch theft summit

Tech companies and manufacturers will be called to attend a Home Office summit on snatch thefts' after this criminality soared by more than 150 percent in the last year, UK Home Office statement said Tuesday. Home Office reported quoting the Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson as saying that phone companies must ensure that any stolen phones can be quickly, easily and permanently disabled, rather than re-registered for sale on the second-hand market. She added that if government, tech companies and law enforcement work together, they can break the business model of the phone thieves and moped gangs who rely on this trade. The summit, called by Home Office, will discuss the possibility of adding anti-theft smartphone features that some tech firms have already rolled out to protect their customers. To tackle this challenge head on, tech companies and manufacturers will be called to attend a Home Office summit on the issue, looking at the new innovations that could take on the illegal market. An estimated 78,000 people had phones or bags grabbed from them on the streets, with policing intelligence suggesting that this is being driven by increased demand for secondhand smartphones, both in the UK and overseas. Operation Opal, the national police intelligence unit, will launch an intelligence probe to gather urgent intel on the criminals who steal mobile phones, and where these devices end up. Source: Kuwait News Agency