Sir Mark Rowley has seen the numbers: stolen phones that once flooded foreign markets are now, in growing numbers, sitting dead in criminals’ hands. The Metropolitan Police commissioner revealed on Thursday that the force has started sharing data with Apple to build a “global picture” of what happens to stolen handsets – including whether they are being reconnected to a network. The results, he said, are already promising.
“If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them,” Rowley told the BBC. Working with Apple, the Met has found that only a minority of stolen phones are now being reactivated compared to a few months ago, making it “harder for criminals to profit”. The shift follows Apple turning an existing security setting – Stolen Device Protection – on by default for iPhones in a system update (iOS 26.4). The setting delays thieves’ ability to change critical security information, like passwords or biometric data, when the device is not at a familiar location, giving owners time to mark their phone as lost.
“Met Police chief urges tech firms to make stolen phones unusable, citing new data-sharing with Apple.”
But Rowley wants more. He has asked the home secretary for legislation that would force phone companies to publish data on stolen devices and enforce measures rendering handsets effectively unusable. Currently, illicit software enables phone snatchers to “factory reset” devices, allowing them to be sold as new on foreign markets. Now, Rowley says Apple believes it has “cracked” the engineering problem, and data shows “the vast majority of phones” stolen in recent weeks in London were not factory reset.
The Met has also entered into an “intelligence sharing agreement” with Apple, which will see the two share data to better understand criminality in London and whether security upgrades need improving. “I’d never say we’re going to get down to zero crime, but this is going to make a massive difference,” Rowley told the BBC. “If they can only be broken up for parts, if you start to make it harder for criminals, they will steal fewer of them.”
The push comes as the Met’s efforts to tackle phone snatching have seen incidents fall by 18% compared to the previous year, according to the force. A Home Office spokesperson said the government is also taking “tough action” on phone theft, including “equipping police with new powers to search properties without a warrant where stolen goods have been electronically located”.
Yet Rowley warned that wider political pressures risk undermining policing. In a separate comment, he said the polarised debate is making policing a “political football” – a tension that may shape how far the government is willing to go in backing his legislative demands.