Apple has teamed up with the Metropolitan Police to combat the rising number of stolen iPhones by introducing a new 'kill switch' that renders snatched devices worthless. The collaboration marks a significant step in tackling phone theft, as stolen device identifiers will now be shared between the tech giant and Britain's biggest police force.
New agreement targets phone theft
The Met and Apple have reached an agreement that protects mobile phone users and makes stolen phones unusable. Apple has agreed to install a 'stolen device protection' feature as a default setting in a recent global system update, making it harder for criminals to resell stolen handsets.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, has been pushing for phone companies to make stolen devices harder to reuse. In March, he issued an ultimatum to telecoms giants, calling for action to make phones less desirable to steal by rendering them impossible to reuse.
Data sharing to track stolen phones
The force revealed on Thursday that it has started sharing data with Apple to more closely track whether stolen handsets get reconnected to a phone network after being taken. Speaking after an operation targeting two phone shops in north London, Sir Mark said the information from Apple will allow officers to build a global picture of what happens to stolen handsets.
He told the Press Association: 'If we share the data we have on the phone stolen, with the data they have on things like reactivations and future uses of phones, we can get a global picture of phones being stolen, are they being reactivated, are they being broken down for parts, where they’re being exported to in the world.'
Sir Mark added: 'We’re already seeing, whereas a few months ago the majority of stolen phones were being reactivated because of security flaws, now with the security improvements it’s the minority being reactivated, that means it’s harder for criminals to profit, that will help bring down the crime further.'
Phone theft rates and impact
The Met has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and theft in England and Wales, with phones being a 'significant' problem. The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with devices stolen in London fetching higher prices in countries like China due to fewer government restrictions.
In the UK, the Met has seen adverts on Snapchat offering children up to £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10. Sir Mark Rowley said: 'I gave an ultimatum to tech firms – take urgent steps to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or we will call on Government to step in and legislate.'
Reduction in thefts
The Met reported that in the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026, the number of thefts and robberies where phones were stolen fell by 14,000, an 18 per cent reduction on the previous year. The first five months of this year saw 6,700 fewer thefts, a drop of 20.6 per cent. In Westminster, where 69 to 72 per cent of thefts involve phones, the reduction has been 45.8 per cent so far this calendar year.
The Met has written to the Home Secretary asking for legislation to require phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and enforce measures to make them unusable. At a conference on phone theft in March, the force called for anti-theft protection to be switched on by default, stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and better access to IMEI data to return devices to owners.
Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of stolen phones in London are returned to their owners. Between 2017 and February 27 2024, a total of 587,498 phones were stolen in London (excluding the City), of which 13,998 were recovered, leaving 573,500 unrecovered. The force also solves one of the smallest proportions of these offences compared with other forces in England and Wales.
