West Midlands MP calls for emergency hotline to disable stolen mobile phones
A West Midland MP has called on the Government to create a new emergency phone number where victims of mobile phone theft can report the crime and have their phones disabled with immediate effect.
Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, tabled a Parliamentary question to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood calling for a new emergency line paid for by mobile phone operators and manufacturers.
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In response, policing minister Sarah Jones said the Government was working with police leaders, leading technology companies and others to 'break the business model of mobile phone thieves'. This included 'discussion around improving reporting mechanisms when a mobile phone is stolen'
Mr Pritchard said mobile-phone theft was traumatic for victims and ate away at valuable police time.
"Mobile manufacturers and operators need to do far more to disincentivise mobile phone theft," he said.
"My policy idea of a central reporting number so phones can be intercepted and erased, and much more, could be an important part in crime prevention and reduction."
In his letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Pritchard asked if she would make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on financial and personal data theft and the number of police hours dedicated to mobile phone crimes.
Miss Jones replied that she and the Home Secretary were determined to take the 'strongest possible action' to reduce the number of phone thefts in London and elsewhere across the country.
"This is a crime that causes significant distress to victims and fuels wider criminality," she wrote.
"That’s why we are driving greater collaboration between policing leaders, the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.
"This has included exploring what technical interventions would be most effective, including discussion around improving reporting mechanisms when a mobile phone is stolen."
She said positive developments included commitments to improving visibility of unique identification numbers to help identify stolen devices and raising awareness of existing mechanisms for reporting the theft of mobile devices, which include calling 101, going to a local police station or reporting the crime anonymously via Crimestoppers.
Miss Jones said the Government would look to work with police and technology companies to 'design out' phone theft by disrupting the resale of stolen phones, exploring technological solutions to make devices harder to re-register or resell, and helping the public protect themselves and the data and personal information on their devices.
