Law enforcement agencies, smartphone makers and wireless service providers all placed a good deal of focus on finding news ways to curb smartphone thefts in 2013. How did those efforts work out? According to a report from The Huffington Post, not very well at all. The blog reports that reported incidents of smartphone theft rose in major cities across the country last year despite the new initiatives put in place by law enforcement agencies and wireless companies to thwart them.
In San Francisco, smartphone thefts on record rose 23% to 2,400 in 2013. “[The San Francisco Police Department] has been aggressively trying to educate the public on smartphone theft safety to prevent being a victim of robbery,” SFPD spokesman Albie Esparza told The Huffington Post. Unfortunately, those efforts have clearly not had the desired impact.
As we reported earlier this week, 8,465 device thefts involving Apple products alone were reported in New York City last year. HuffPo also notes that cell phone thefts climbed 6% in Washington D.C. and iPhone thefts in Denver rose 22%. In Philadelphia, there were 500 cell phones stolen in 2013 on public transportation alone, up 6% on-year and up 44% from 2011.
The recent launch of two new iPhone models and the growing popularity of Samsung smartphones are seen as big contributing factors to the rise in smartphone thefts last year.
