00:00I think what we're seeing now is that we're known for leading the world's
00:03efforts to tackle this problem. In the centre of London in Westminster it's now
00:07running at half the rate it was a year ago. That's the consequences of bearing
00:12down both on the thieves on the streets and also the organised criminals such as
00:17the ones in this shop that we've been closing down in Finchster today that's
00:20been exporting stolen phones across the world. It's that effort that's making such
00:24a big difference for Londoners. We're relentless increasing the jeopardy for
00:27offenders but we've also been putting pressure on offenders. We've also been
00:31putting pressure on the tech companies and those tech companies have started to
00:35change their security software to help defeat the criminals. So the other thing
00:39that we're announcing today with Apple is a joint intelligence approach. So if we
00:44share the data we have on the phone stolen with the data they have on things like
00:49reactivations and future uses of phone, we can get a global picture of phones being
00:54stolen, are they being reactivated, are they being broken down for parts, where they're
00:57being exported to in the world. And we're already seeing that whereas a few
01:02months ago the majority of stolen phones have been reactivated because of
01:05security flaws, now with the security improvements it's the minority being
01:10reactivated. That means it's harder for criminals to profit and that will help
01:13bring down the crime further. I'm encouraged by the steps that Apple and some
01:19of the other firms are taking. They've improved their security that's making it
01:23harder for them to be cracked which is good. They're also going to work with us
01:26jointly on sharing intelligence. But the phone industry is massively complicated.
01:32There's so many different manufacturers, so many different telecoms providers that
01:36I'm today writing to the Home Secretary asking for her to mandate companies to pay
01:42attention to the theft issue and to be transparent in whether they're making
01:47progress or not because they can defeat the criminal marketplace. The Metropolitan
01:51Police has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and
01:56theft from the person in England and Wales, among which phones are a significant
02:03problem. On Thursday the force revealed it has started sharing data with Apple to
02:09more closely track whether stolen handsets get reconnected to a phone network
02:14after they're taken. The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of
02:19dollars, with a device stolen in London worth more in countries like China because it has
02:25none of the government restrictions put in place by authorities there. In the UK, the Met
02:32has seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with
02:41a bonus of £100 for stealing £10. Met Chief Sir Mark Rowley has previously said
02:48telecoms giants should take action to make handsets unusable bricks in order to render
02:54them less appealing to steal.
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