Global phone theft can be tracked by combining data held by police with information from technology companies, the Metropolitan Police has said, as it revealed a new intelligence-sharing agreement with Apple that aims to turn stolen handsets into worthless blocks of metal and glass.
“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,” a Met police official told the Press Association. The arrangement, which also involves collaboration with Samsung and Google, marks a significant escalation in the fight against a criminal trade that the force says is worth millions of pounds internationally.
Global picture
The international market for stolen smartphones is both lucrative and highly organised. Devices stolen on the streets of London can be worth far more overseas, particularly in China, where fewer government restrictions allow higher prices to be charged. Thieves themselves are typically paid between £200 and £300 per handset at street level, but the real profits lie in export. Stolen iPhone 16 Pro Max models have been observed changing hands abroad for $4,500 to $5,000, according to police intelligence.
The scale of the problem is stark. In the 2024-25 financial year, 86,000 phone thefts were reported to the Met, yet fewer than 1% of those cases resulted in a criminal charge, with 95% of investigations closed without a suspect being identified. A 2025 report indicated that the proportion of UK adults who have experienced phone theft has risen sharply — 29% reported being a victim, up from 17% a year earlier. The average financial loss stands at £484, rising to around £600 for more than a third of victims. The crime has also driven anxiety and caused many people to reduce their use of mobile banking, email and social media.
Police operations have exposed the supply chains behind this trade. Operation Echosteep, the Met’s largest-ever phone theft investigation, uncovered a network of thieves, handlers and exporters believed to have trafficked up to 40,000 stolen phones to China between 2024 and 2025. The operation, part of a broader crackdown named Operation Reckoning, also involved arresting prolific offenders, executing warrants on businesses suspected of handling stolen goods, and using specialist pursuit teams.
Data sharing and how it works
At the heart of the new approach is a formal data-sharing agreement between the Metropolitan Police and Apple. The company has implemented a global change to its security system that ensures stolen devices cannot be easily reused or resold, including by sharing stolen device identifiers with law enforcement. Apple has also agreed to introduce a so-called “kill switch” that renders pilfered devices worthless, further disrupting the resale market.
The effect of combining datasets is to create a single intelligence picture. Police provide details of phones reported stolen; Apple supplies information on subsequent reactivation attempts, usage patterns, and whether a device has been broken down for components or exported overseas. By matching these records, investigators can see, for example, whether a phone stolen in London has been activated again in another country, or if its parts have appeared in a repair shop thousands of miles away.
Early data from the collaboration suggests the approach is working. A significant proportion of stolen phones in a recent sample have not been successfully reactivated, according to the force, diminishing their value to criminals and making them “unusable bricks”. Apple’s existing “Stolen Device Protection” feature, introduced with iOS 17.3, adds an extra layer of security by requiring Face ID or Touch ID for sensitive actions, even when the phone is unlocked, and can impose time delays for operations such as changing an Apple ID password. However, the feature is not turned on by default and must be enabled by the user. The “Find My” network, which uses other Apple devices anonymously and securely to locate missing items, also locks the screen and suspends Apple Pay cards when a device is marked as lost.
The Met has been pushing for these changes for more than two and a half years. In March, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley issued an ultimatum to technology firms, demanding urgent action to prevent stolen phones from being resold and reused, or face legislative intervention. The force is now pressing the Home Secretary to compel phone companies to make stolen devices harder to reuse, and is calling for legislation that would require manufacturers to publish data on stolen devices and reconnections. It is also urging the government to prepare minimum technical standards to render phones stolen in the UK effectively unusable.
Impact and benefits
The partnership is already producing measurable results. In Westminster, phone theft has fallen by 45.8% in the calendar year 2026 so far (January to May), representing 4,500 fewer phones stolen in that area alone. Across London as a whole, the Met has reduced theft from the person and robbery offences where a mobile phone was stolen by 14,000 over the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026 — an 18% reduction compared with the previous year. For the first five months of 2026, such offences are down by 6,700, a 20.6% drop against the same period in 2025.
By making stolen phones less attractive to criminals, the data-sharing initiative is intended to undercut the business model that drives street-level theft. The Met has also highlighted the exploitation of children in this trade, with advertisements seen on Snapchat offering significant sums for stealing iPhones, plus bonuses for multiple thefts, a practice the force views as an entry point into organised crime.
Despite the progress, challenges remain. More experienced thieves can exploit software vulnerabilities or loopholes to bypass protections. Even if a phone is rendered unusable, its individual components can still hold value and be resold on the black market. There is also a potential conflict between making phones “brickable” and the “right to repair” movement, with discussions under way about how to balance the two. And in some countries, the absence of International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) databases makes it harder to ensure stolen phones cannot be reactivated. These are complications the Met and its partners will need to address as they seek to close off every avenue for criminals to profit from stolen devices.
